Classical review: Carolin Widmann, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Emilio Pomàrico, Morton Feldman: Violin and Orchestra (ECM New Series)

In Morton Feldman's lengthy 1979 piece "Violin and Orchestra", neither violin nor orchestra behaves as they do in the standard concerto format.

Small, shrill dissonances and drones of violin are subsumed among the inchoate rumblings, tone-clusters and percussive timbres of huge orchestral forces which are, contrarily, rarely employed in more than small, quiet groupings. And as usual in Feldman's work, it's often hard to distinguish the sources of individual tones. Carolin Widmann's performance here is exemplary in its eschewal of virtuosic gesture, instead quietly navigating the abstractly shifting sound-bed of the orchestra like a fish finding its place within a sea current.

Download: Violin and Orchestra