Vurdering: 4/5

"Coptic Light (1986), Morton Feldmans letztes Orchesterwerk ... erscheint wie ein regungsloses Objekt, das in irisierenden Farben funkelnd vor sich hin dämmert. Die Ausleuchtung der Wiener ist angenehm durchhörbar und ungewohnt hell. Elegische Züge prägen den Quartett-Part in "String Quartet and Orchestra" (1973), der wie schimmernde Intarsien in den fahlen Orchesterklang eingearbeitet ist. Bodenlose Melancholie und Einsamkeit schweben über diesem Stück, als wäre es eine Illustration von Feldmans Empfehlung an junge Komponisten, so allein zu sein wie möglich"

"The works on this absorbing release prompt a look back at his ensuing compositional journey: from the painterly distillation yet expansion of 1986's Coptic Light - his final and possibly greatest orchestral work - to an earlier prototype in 1973's String Quartet and Orchestra ... Here ... it's Feldman's progressive refinement of colour that's most striking. In both pieces, shading and timbre meld with attack and decay as structural foundations within a hushed overall dynamic"

"The music of Morton Feldman falls in between that of the Cage-era New York avant-garde and the more recent minimalist movement, a fact that may have hurt its popularity for a while but may now be boosting it. This release by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Arditti Quartet suggests that Feldman's music continues to gain traction beyond his native U.S., and it offers quite a listenable example of his late style ... A strong choice for those becoming interested in Feldman's late style"

"The programme of this release incentivises us to listen to Coptic Light first, but there is a fascination in String Quartet and Orchestra and the 13 years of change between these two works that makes more sense to reverse this order in practice ... Feldman's feel for mournful cadences is expressed several times in String Quartet and Orchestra, and there is a slowness and atmospheric feel of suspense that now can seem more cinematic than avant-garde ... Coptic Light is one of Feldman's late masterpieces, taking a huge orchestra into a world of strangeness and poetic shimmering ... To sum up, this is a fine coupling of two Morton Feldman orchestral works that deserve multiple versions in the record catalogue, so this release is very welcome indeed. The more you hear this music the more its unique qualities work its way into your conscious and subconscious mind, opening out new spaces of experience and hopefully releasing new worlds of imagination and rare beauty"