Morton Feldman has made it to Naxos American Classics! But not with some of his more accessible pieces such as Rothko Chapel or The Viola in my Life but with the challenging late String Quartet (1979) – a single span lasting nearly 80 minutes. When the original incarnation of this fine performance appeared, it was easy to imagine Feldman at his piano fastidiously conceiving his sounds through some kind of psychic transmission that somehow penetrated the fog of his uniquely personal conceptual confusions.
The String Quartet is long but never boring.
Within the gamut of slow and mostly soft sounds there's intriguing variety and the players often ride a high wire of demanding harmonics.
The occasional loud clusters – only nine of these – are like volcanic eruptions. By the time we reach the end Feldman has taught us to listen microscopically and the stop-start of the final section seems almost agonisingly moving.

The String Quartet is long never boring. Within the gamut of slow and most soft sounds there's intriguing variety and the players often ride a high wire of demanding harmonics. The occasional loud clusters - only nine of these - are like volcanic eruptions. By the time we reach the end Feldman has taught us to listen microscopically and the stop-start of the final section seems almost agonisingly moving.