Morton Feldman’s hauntingly beautiful Rothko Chapel receives an excellent performance by the SWR Stuttgart Vocal Ensemble. Scored for solo viola, percussion, two solo female voices, and chorus, and toward the end containing an actual authentic tune, it’s one of Feldman’s most approachable and riveting works, full of ear-catching textures and musical gestures. As a gateway into this composer’s unique, quietly insidious sound world, there’s nothing better.
For Stephan Wolpe, scored for wordless chorus and vibraphones, takes more patience. Imagine, if you will, the last two notes of Holst’s The Planets repeated over and over, slightly varied on repetition and interspersed with atonal vibraphone interludes for some 34 minutes, and you’ll get the picture. Of course, as with all of Feldman’s works in this style, there’s more going on in terms of vertical harmony than you might at first notice–but you’d have to be a convert to the cause to want to make the effort. Slightly less well recorded than its disc-mate, For Stephan Wolpe may strike your fancy, especially if you try playing it softly. Christian Wolff in Cambridge, just a bit more than three minutes long, sounds like a tiny sliver of the previous piece and appropriately fills out this enterprising and valuable addition to the growing Feldman discography.
