Feldman: Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello (1987)

Feldman’s last work, Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello displays the qualities of the “late style”: complete mastery, utter assurance, and a kind of luminous melancholy. Like Palais de Mari, written a year earlier, it unfolds at a leisurely pace, with similar uses of repetition and recurrence, gentle rocking figures, and a somewhat restricted range. The measured unfolding of the material, without emphasis on dra- matic contrast or large fluctuations in the rate of change, enables the listener to focus on the work’s many subtle and beguiling details.