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Morton Feldman: Early Piano Pieces

Feldman / Liebner
Release Date: 01/08/2013 
Label:  Wergo   Catalog #: 6747   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner
Number of Discs: 2 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 2 Hours 10 Mins. 

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Notes and Editorial Reviews


Morton Feldman’s sparse, fragile, meticulously calibrated, and singularly sonorous piano output attracts more and more pianists on disc, including Sabine Liebner, whose sonically and interpretively gorgeous recordings of For Bunita Marcus, Palais de Mari, and Triadic Memories on Oehms Classics are points of reference. She completes her Feldman piano cycle with an equally desirable two-disc collection of the composer’s early pieces. It includes just about everything that Feldman wrote for piano solo between 1950 and 1964, excepting the 1949/50 set of four Illusions.

Listeners familiar with the lengthy, introspective piano works from Feldman’s later years may find the time scale of his Read more briefer, more compact earlier works better suited to his style. At the same time, the half-hour long Piano from 1977 contains more overtly dramatic gestures and dynamic extremes that put both the notes and their residual resonance on equal footing. For this reason the Bavarian Radio production’s closely detailed yet atmospheric sonics factor into the performance’s riveting impact, along with Liebner’s finely tuned gradations of touch and her pinpoint observation of Feldman’s meticulous articulations and rests.

She may not capture the implicit lilt and melodic trajectory that John Tilbury conveys in certain miniatures like Vertical Thoughts 4, or the 1954 Three Pieces, but her sterner conceptions are no less valid. In one earlier review I likened both of these Feldman pianists to conductors, saying that Liebner is Klemperer to Tilbury’s Beecham. A clear-cut preference for one pianist over the other is impossible, except that the Tilbury cycle is not easy to find. But don’t expect that Liebner’s Feldman recordings will be around forever. If you have the slightest interest, don’t hesitate; buy them now.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
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Works on This Recording

1.
Intermissions (2) by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1950; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 3 Minutes 34 Secs. 
2.
Intermission 3 by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1951; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 2 Minutes 1 Secs. 
3.
Intermission 4 by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1952; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 2 Minutes 8 Secs. 
4.
Intermission 5 by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1952; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 4 Minutes 19 Secs. 
5.
Intermission 6a by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1953; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 5 Minutes 36 Secs. 
6.
Variations for Piano by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1951; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 6 Minutes 35 Secs. 
7.
Nature pieces, for piano by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: Modern 
Written: 1951 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 14 Minutes 34 Secs. 
8.
Extensions no 3 by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1952; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 8 Minutes 1 Secs. 
9.
Piano Piece 1955 by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1955; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 2 Minutes 24 Secs. 
10.
Last Pieces, for piano by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: Modern 
Written: 1959 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 14 Minutes 24 Secs. 
11.
Vertical Thoughts IV by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1963; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 1 Minutes 51 Secs. 
12.
Piano Piece (to Philip Guston) by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: Contemporary 
Written: 1963; United States of Ame 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 4 Minutes 12 Secs. 
13.
Piano by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1977; USA 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 31 Minutes 34 Secs. 
14.
Three Pieces for Piano by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: Modern 
Written: 1954 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 7 Minutes 28 Secs. 
15.
Piano Piece 1964 by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: Modern 
Written: 1964 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 5 Minutes 48 Secs. 
16.
Piano Piece 1952 by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: Modern 
Written: 1952 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 7 Minutes 59 Secs. 
17.
Piano Piece 1956 A by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: Modern 
Written: 1956 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 3 Minutes 6 Secs. 
18.
Piano Piece 1956 B by Morton Feldman
Performer:  Sabine Liebner (Piano)
Period: Modern 
Written: 1956 
 Venue:  Studio 2, Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Length: 3 Minutes 23 Secs. 

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