Morton Feldman / Steffen Schleiermacher — The Late Piano Works Vol. 1-Triadic Memories

This is the first in a series of three CD’s that finds respected German pianist Steffen Schleiermacher playing the work of one of the great minimalist/modern classical composers Morton Feldman. The CD takes in just one  80 minute piece- Triadic Memories, which was composed in 1981 by Feldman, and has gone onto be one of his most played/ recored works.

A quick search on Discogs reveals there are upwards of ten recordings presently available of this piece, with of course various respected pianist giving the work their own interruption. As with most of Feldman's longer works, there is a variation in running times from which version you listen to. And with Triadic Memories  these runtimes are really very varied, moving between a hour to nearing two hours.  This version comes in at the 80.44 mark- so I guess you'd say this falls in the mid range of the running lengths.

As with all of Feldman’s work Triadic Memories is based around a series of  note patterns, which are played out in a skeletal & very controlled manner. These patterns can vary in both  speed, complexity & detail- but quite often the same patterns will reappear again & again through-out the work.  Some of Feldman’s pieces find the composer offering up a huge host of patterns, while others are very narrow in both tonal & pattern range.

This version of the piece opens in a fairly urgent, pacey,  yet skeletal fashion with a blend of flurrying & descending lower notes, and a mimicking pattern of mid-range notes. As the track moves into it’s third minute the same pattern is repeated in various places on the piano, and this creates a nice feel of mysterious eerier-ness. These opening minutes really pull you into the piece in a most effective, creepy & quite  dramatically gothic manner.  As the piece progresses on we find more shifting variations on the original pattern, along with new patterns been added to the mix too, and these take-in: sudden darts, sew-sawing blends of mid & high pitch notation, slowed & sad pitter-patter note trails, lulling drifts of tonally close notation, & sudden off angular  shifts in  patterns. Yet though-out it all it still keeps returning to the pieces central & frail sad melody line/ note pattern( in different variations)

I’ve heard a few versions of this piece, and I must say Schleiermacher take on it is most spellbinding. He plays the whole thing with such focus, emotion, and care.
As you’d expect the recording is very quiet, and recording in pristine clear-ness with a DDD transfer.

So in summing up I must say this is an very worthy version of one of Feldman’s more known & played pieces. This will (of course) appeal to those who are already fans of Feldman’s work, but equally I could see this as a good starting release for those new to this great minimalist/modern classical composers work.