Rothko Chapel / Why Patterns? cover
Released

Two lovely works from Feldman, the former from 1971, the latter from 1978. Rothko Chapel is the stunner here (though they’re both great) – the performance has a beautiful chill to it, a mesmerising stillness, that’s disrupted several times by surprising interventions, like the subtle yet very surprising appearance of a ‘quasi-Hebraic’ melody towards the end of the composition. It makes sense that a work like this would be composed for a space of such contemplative mood as Rothko Chapel, and Feldman does a good job of intimating the space and Rothko’s painting, which seem to slowly swallow the rooms they’re hung in, without anything obvious or immediately parallel to the visual experience. It’s gorgeous work, expanded by the ‘uncoordinated score’ that dictates (to a degree) Why Patterns?, where flute, glockenspiel and piano carefully tiptoe around each other in differing clusters of melodic-rhythmic patterns and permutations.

Jon Dale

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