The Viola in My Life

Can an instrument be highlighted more effectively? In Feldman’s four-part cycle, the viola is placed in a changeable chamber music context. It generally sets the tone, both in a metaphorical and a compositional sense. Its sound character decides musical parameters such as pitch, duration and sound volume, instead of any narrative intention of the author or genre conventions of a solo concerto. The indications in the score merely model the micro-structure of the sound surface, a series of intricate patterns which continuously vary and flow into one another, without ever resulting in a comprehensive form.

This abstract expressionism, which Feldman found in visual works by Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, makes extraordinary demands on the performers. Without the scaffolding of an overarching, theme-based dramaturgy, the goal is to create a fragile arc of tension using only minimalist nuances of sound, rhythm and dynamics.

Das Konzert im Radio: Freitag, 20.05.2022, WDR3 Konzert, 20:04