Performers: Julia Breuer (piccolo, flute, alto flute), Matthias Engler (glockenspiel, vibraphone, tubular bells, marimba), Elmar Schrammel (piano, celesta)
Playing time: 275' (271' without fades)
Recording dates: April & May 2007 (Karlsruhe); released: 2008
As with most late Feldman works, the track breaks do not mean anything. Here there are simply fade-in/fade-out tracks to provide some overlap when changing the CDs. (Note that these can be avoided on computer hard drives, meaning that as of this writing, one can buy the mp3 version of this recording for $4 at Amazon by buying the 4 individual tracks.)
Like Dorothy Stone et al. on For Christian Wolff, this ensemble comes to For Philip Guston after extensive experience with Feldman's music for similar ensembles, and it shows. This is the first they have recorded, but this trio was formed specifically to perform Feldman's music, and has apparently had extensive performance experience. This is a great example of a younger group of interpreters coming to this music as a historical document, and the precision of their playing is superb. There had been three previous recordings of For Philip Guston (which is kind of amazing for such a long piece), but this trio manages to put an updated stamp on the piece with their precision and attention to detail.
To purchasing information for this disc.
To Feldman page.
Todd M. McComb Updated: 31 January 2012