Philip Thomas presents a major 5CD collection of virtually all of Morton Feldman's music for piano, the most extensive survey of Feldman's piano music to date. Released by Another Timbre in September 2019, exactly 20 years after John Tilbury's pioneering but long unavailable 4CD set, this box includes several pieces which weren't included there, and three works which have never been released on disc before.
Feldman (1926-1987) was part of a radical group of experimenters alongside John Cage, Christian Wolff and Earle Brown, who looked beyond the strictures of serialism to innovate with and embrace aspects of chance and indeterminacy in their compositions. Most often associated with the piano, Feldman is perhaps best known for his perceptively time slowing later works, but this boxset presents the widest angle possible on his approach to the piano, spanning surprisingly cranky recordings from the 1940s through to the exquisite delicacy of his later works.
Philip Thomas has been playing Feldman's music for 25 years and is one of the foremost interpreters of his work, with an extraordinary gentle touch. Born in North Devon in 1972, Thomas specializes in performing new and experimental music, including both notated and improvised music. He is particularly drawn to the experimental music of Cage, Feldman and Wolff, and composers who broadly work within a post Cageian aesthetic. In 2014, Thomas and Tilbury combined forces to produce the highly acclaimed Two Pianos and other pieces, 1953-1969 double CD, which featured Feldman's music for multiple pianos.
Thomas explores the breadth of Feldman's solo piano music, omitting only a few student pieces from the 1940s while resurrecting others, like an archival minute long Untitled piano piece dated 1947, for a glimpse of Feldman's nascent vision. There are also transcriptions of two pieces with lost scores, including the piano part in the soundtrack for the film Sculpture by Lipton.
In a 52 page essay about his relationship to Feldman's music, Thomas emphasizes that while other composers make you think about the sound of a G sharp, Feldman focuses the concentration on how notes feel. The unique challenges of his piano writing, Thomas implies, returns his interpreters to basic questions about how the wrist moves as the hand attacks a note. Thomas's approach, working closely with producer Simon Reynell, moves beyond wanting to approximate a concert hall perspective, focusing instead on vertical virtuosity: the utmost care in the attack of the notes rather than their rapid succession.
The box set contains individual printed CD wallets with artwork by English painter David Ainley and a 52 page booklet with extensive notes by Thomas. Recorded at St Paul's Hall, University of Huddersfield, by Reynell, the crystal clear recording quality captures the textures and colours of Feldman's music with vivid detail. Thomas brings a reflective depth to the work, emphasizing the composer's preoccupation with sonic detail and tactility.
This six hour collection radiates the care, attention to detail and love invested in producing it. Everything about it, from artwork and packaging to documentation and recording quality, is second to none. Essential listening for anyone interested in Feldman's work, 20th century piano music, and the post Cageian experimental tradition.
