Morton Feldman STRING QUARTET (1979) CD Josje Ter Haar

Morton Feldman
String Quartet (1979)
Hat Art

The string quartet has a special place in classical music, second in importance among ensembles only to the orchestra.The string quartet repertoire is rich, ranging from the 18th and 19th century Classicists and Romantics—Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert most prominently—to Modernists of the past century—Bartok, Shostakovich, and Milhaud among the most prolific and respected. Even iconoclasts like Schönberg, Berg, Babbitt, and Carter confirmed a connection to the tradition and created works which adhered to the formal logic and dramatic ambience of those of their predecessors while incorporating their own compositional procedures. But there have been exceptions as well, extremist composers who rejected the genre outright, or distorted it beyond recognition. Morton Feldman fits into the latter category...or does he?— Art Lange