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Morton Feldman's Triadic Memories · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to the Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  I invite you to take out a paid subscription
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  to the Piano Maven podcast, because... paid subscribers
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  get a free download at the beginning of each
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  month. How is that for enticement? But your support
• 0:30
  really does help keep this podcast alive and
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  afloat throughout the year. I'm going to talk
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  about the American composer Morton Feldman because
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  this year, 2026, marks his centenary. He died
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  in 1987 at the young age of 61 after battling
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  cancer. He was associated with composers such
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  as John Cage and Earl Brown, who also came of
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  age after the Second World War. And his early
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  music is similarly sparse and atonal. But it
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  was in the late 1970s that Feldman started to
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  write big works on a large time scale. And these
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  works would go on for like one hour or maybe
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  90 minutes. Or in the case of the second string
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  quartet, that... goes on for about six hours
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  or maybe eight hours. I guess it depends on the
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  performers. During this period, Feldman wrote
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  two very large piano pieces. One is called For
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  Benita Marcus, who was a student of his, and
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  that piece has been recorded quite a few times.
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  But I'm going to talk about the other large...
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  piece. It's a piece called Triadic Memories.
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  It was composed in 1981. It was written for and
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  jointly dedicated to the pianists Roger Woodward
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  and Aki Takahashi. Woodward gave the work its
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  premiere in London. on October 5th, 1981, in
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  the composer's presence. And then Aki Takahashi
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  gave the American premiere at the State University
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  of New York at Buffalo in 1982, and that was
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  also in the presence of the composer. Generally,
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  a performance lasts anywhere between 70 to 80
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  minutes, sometimes a little longer. Feldman described...
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  triadic memories, and I quote him as saying,
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  this is a conscious attempt at quote -unquote
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  formalizing a disorientation of memory. Chords
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  are heard repeated without any discernible pattern.
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  In this regularity, though there are slight gradations
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  of tempo, there is a suggestion that what we
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  hear is functional and directional, but we soon
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  realize that this is an illusion, a bit like
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  walking the streets of Berlin, where all the
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  buildings look alike, even if they are not. That's
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  an interesting quote. My colleague at Gramophone
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  magazine, Philip Clark, who I think is a brilliant
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  scholar and has written really astutely about
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  Feldman and John Cage, he said that Triadic Memories
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  was Feldman's most contradictory and problematic
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  piano piece. I actually don't think so. I think
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  it's quite accessible and rather easy to follow.
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  And perhaps it's because of its contradictory
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  and diverse elements that make it easy for me
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  to follow. Certainly, it made it relatively easy
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  for me to prepare to perform. I mean, obviously,
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  it's not an easy piece to play, and you really
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  have to work at it. But the form, to me, kind
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  of revealed itself when I was first learning
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  it. I don't know, maybe I just see and hear things
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  differently, or even more probably, I don't know
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  what I'm talking about. But I'm going to try
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  to explain what happens in this piece. Triadic
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  Memories opens with long, sustained notes in
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  the piano's extreme registers, and gradually...
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  The notes work their way toward the middle of
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  the piano, and eventually they materialize into
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  steady rhythmic patterns of carefully considered
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  single notes and small chords. And then later
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  on in the piece, you have these sparser... bell
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  -like resonances that are mapped out to painstaking
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  dynamic specifications, along with this phrase
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  that appears to repeat over and over again, but
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  actually this repeated phrase is subject to minute
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  metric and dynamic variations in typical late
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  Feldman period fashion. Around the work's halfway
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  point, Feldman's very spacious sound canvas grows
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  darker with the introduction of murky bass register
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  chords and quicker note values. And you have
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  sections that include very ethereal kind of arpeggios
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  and extensive rumblings in the bass. Plus, you
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  have stark, slow -motion, repeated chords that
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  take their sweet time to change, but they change
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  at exactly the right moments, so it seems. In
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  a live concert situation, Feldman always expected
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  listeners to dip in and out of the music, coming
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  and going at will, psychologically as perhaps
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  physically, and not to worry about listening.
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  in terms of a linear beginning, middle, and end
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  attitude. You could just kind of float around
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  with it, like if you're looking at, you know,
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  a big Alexander Calder mobile, and you're looking
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  at it from different perspectives, not necessarily
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  front to back or down to top. But I think that
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  Feldman's... genius, and I think he really did
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  have a genius for keeping his pitches fresh and
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  his delicate textures insidiously mobile. I think
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  that because of this, it makes triadic memories
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  a real pleasure to hear as it unfolds in real
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  time from start to finish, from beginning to
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  end, without you getting restless. I guess it
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  depends also on the ambience of the room in which
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  you're listening to the piece or the quality
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  of your home stereo equipment or whatever you're
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  listening to. Also, the quality of the piano
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  itself, but most importantly, the quality of
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  the pianist himself or herself. There have been
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  quite a few recordings of triadic memories, and
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  to be honest, they are all good. Although the
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  differences mainly lie within timings and pacing
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  and recording quality. And also, some pianists
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  are more liberal in terms of observing rests,
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  while other pianists are much more strict. But
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  in terms of timing, it's interesting that Roger
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  Woodward took one hour and 27 minutes to get
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  through Triadic Memories, while Aki Takahashi's
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  recording clocks in at just a little over one
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  hour, I think 61 minutes, so that may be the
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  fastest one on disc. Marilyn Nonken made a marvelous
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  recording of Triadic Memories that lasts 93 minutes
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  and 48 seconds. And you can find this either
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  on two standard audio CDs or in DVD audio format,
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  which allows you to listen without interruption.
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  And what I love about her performance is that...
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  She takes great care in regard to rhythmic exactitude
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  in differentiating the timbres on each staff
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  and also embracing subtle dynamic contrasts.
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  But she does this in a way that really flows
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  and is all of one piece, and it really does take
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  you on a journey. And the intimate... Quality
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  of the sonics, I think, adds to this as well.
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  Stefan Schleiermacher on the MDG label is relatively
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  general compared to Marilyn Nonken in terms of
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  detail. There is a swifter flow to his performance.
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  He clocks in much less than Marilyn Nonken, but
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  he is much freer with his rhythm. Now, I think
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  that the pianist John Tilbury split the difference
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  between Marilyn Nonking and Stefan Schleiermacher,
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  and his performance truly enters into Feldman's
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  sound world and aesthetic. His commercial recording
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  takes around 79 minutes in total. But the problem
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  with this recording is that it is so difficult
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  to source. It was once available as part of a
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  four -disc set devoted to Feldman's complete
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  solo piano works, and it came out on a label
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  called London Hall in a limited edition. Good
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  luck finding it. But there is a longer and more
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  expansive... live performance with John Tilbury
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  that is available through his website. I have
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  not heard it. I have to admit, I think it's for
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  sale on his website. I did provide a link in
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  the comments. Now, for idiomatic understanding
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  and fluidity, the recording by Anton Batagoff
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  is worth hearing, and considering how slowly
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  he played Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur l 'Enfant
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  Jésus cycle, he is surprisingly forthright. with
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  Feldman, and he doesn't play as slowly as you
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  would imagine. The sonics in this live performance
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  are not the greatest, but it is easy for your
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  ears to adjust. But I am happy to have this recording
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  in my collection. However, if you have the time
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  and the space and the commitment to take in the
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  full Triadic Memories experience, my top recommendation
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  remains the recording on the URMS Classics label
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  by Sabine Leibner. She takes every repeat option
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  and as such her performance turns out to be one
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  of the longest we have, more than two hours or
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  just about two hours. This is a two disc set
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  and I would recommend that If you get it, you
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  digitize the physical disks so that you can play
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  the files back without interruption. Sabine Leibner's
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  instinct for tone color and her balancing of
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  sonorities and her very sophisticated pedaling
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  are captured in gorgeous sonics, and she really
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  sustains very leisurely tempos throughout. In
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  some respects, I prefer the fuller sounding ambient
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  manifestation in the Sabine Leibner recording
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  than in... the closer and more intimately engineered
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  Marilyn Nonken recording. And under Sabine Leibner's
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  fingers, the music just unfolds with hypnotic
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  patience, as if nothing could stand in her way.
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  So if you don't mind ripping files or jerry -rigging
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  or whatever you have to do to hear Sabine Leibner,
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  in one fell swoop, uninterrupted. I would recommend
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  her recording first. But if you would rather
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  have... 93 minutes instead of two hours. And
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  you can deal with DVD audio. I would recommend
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  Marilyn Nonken for an uninterrupted experience
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  where you don't have to do any of that stuff.
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  And if you can get hold of that John Tilbury
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  recording that was part of that out -of -print
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  four CD set, grab it. Of course, that is probably
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  easier said than done. But I think with those
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  three pianists, you are really in the best hands
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  as far as triadic memories is concerned. This
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  is Jed Disler, and you've been listening to The
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  Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings. I look forward to being with you
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  next time.