Steven Osborne: Crumb and Feldman

Towards the end of his life Morton Feldman became fascinated by almost symmetry: structures or objects which appeared to be regular, but which in fact contained subtle beats of variation. He wrote of the “marvellous shimmer” of patterns found in old rugs, and the perfectly imperfect design of the Babylonian Palais de Mari seen in a photograph at the Louvre. His extended meditation on the image forms the final sequence of this deeply contemplative programme.

George Crumb’s A Little Suite for Christmas is similarly inspired by art: the 14th-century frescoes by Giotto, in the Arena Chapel in Padua. Crumb’s music is ecstatic; his scores almost as visually dazzling as the frescoes themselves, the performer sometimes reaching inside the piano to pluck its strings, harplike.

The programme also features smaller but perfectly formed examples of Feldman’s early piano music, along with Crumb’s Processional, described by the composer as “an experiment in harmonic chemistry”. To some extent it resembles a passage of deep sleep, its background gentle pulse disrupted by occasional bursts of agitation.

Steven Osborne brings his trademark intelligent musical empathy to these unusual and transfixing pieces. The Scotsman described Osborne’s recording of Feldman and Crumb as “mesmerisingly sublime … a triumph of the extraordinary”.

Steven Osborne piano