String Quartet and the Faculty of Brandeis University in 2002

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Carol Zeavin Joshua Gordon AMERICAN CLASSICS A native of Los Angeles, California, Carol Zeavin graduated cum laude from UCLA and served as concertmaster of The cellist Joshua Gordon joined the Lydian String Quartet and the faculty of Brandeis University in 2002. He is an the UCLA Symphony under Mehli Mehta. During this time she also served as Principal Second of both the Young alumnus of the Juilliard School and the Tanglewood Music Center, and has been heard as soloist and chamber Musicians’ Foundation Debut Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas and of the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. musician in concerts, festivals, and broadcasts across the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan, and Her interest in chamber music led her to string quartet residencies in Binghamton, Buffalo and Vermont, as well as South America. He has been a member of the New York Chamber Soloists (1984-1987), the Group For quartet performances at the Grand Teton and White Mountain music festivals. Her arrival in New York in 1976 Contemporary Music (1990-1993), and the New Millennium Ensemble (1992-1994), and has performed as a guest heralded the founding of the Columbia String Quartet, which gave first performances of works by Charles with the Cassatt and Ying Quartets, Emmanuel Music, the Fromm Chamber Players at Harvard University, the New Wuorinen, Nicolas Roussakis, Lukas Foss, Morton Feldman and Wayne Peterson, and the world première of Alban York Festival of Song, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Speculum Musicae. He was principal cellist of the Morton Berg’s programmatic Lyric Suite with voice. She has performed with Speculum Musicae since 1976, and has Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic in Scranton and Wilkes Barre (1999-2004) and acting principal cellist of recorded chamber music for Columbia Records, New World Records, Nonesuch, CRI, Bridge Records and Koch the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (2000-2001). He is currently principal cellist of the New England String International. She gave her solo New York début recital in 1982. In her orchestral work Carol Zeavin has served as Ensemble, co-principal cellist of the New Hampshire Symphony, and resident cellist at the annual Composers FELDMAN principal second with the American Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Conference at Wellesley College. He studied with Harvey Shapiro, Joel Krosnick, and the Juilliard Quartet, and American Ballet Theatre, and Paul Taylor Ballet. She currently serves as principal second of the New York more recently with George Neikrug. He is featured on recordings from Albany, CRI, Cala, Koch International Chamber Symphony, and Dance Theatre of Harlem, and was a member for twenty years of the Mostly Mozart Classics, Tall Poppies, and Tzadik, and with the Lydians received a Copland Fund grant to record the complete Orchestra. In addition, since 1992, she has embraced a second career in Early Childhood Education and Early string quartets of Vincent Persichetti for Centaur. Intervention, has received two Masters degrees from Bank Street College and permanent certification from the State of New York. Formerly Head Teacher at the Barnard College Toddler Development Center, she is now working in the field of Special Education with young children at home and at school. String Lois Martin Quartet Lois Martin, a native of York, Pennsylvania, began her viola studies with Arthur Lewis at the Peabody Preparatory School. She completed her undergraduate work at the Eastman School of Music where she was a scholarship student of Francis Tursi. During this time she was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She continued her graduate studies at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Lillian Fuchs. She is a founding member (1979) of the Atlantic String Quartet, which is dedicated to the performance of newly written compositions, and is also principal violist for the Stamford Symphony, Solisti New York, OK Mozart Festival, Concordia and String Fever. She is also a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Salon Chamber Players and the American Chamber Ensemble. Performances have included three different tours to California playing with Michael Brecker, the New York City Ballet and New York New Music. She also recorded the cast album of the Broadway hit Spamalot and John Zorns’s Orphee. She was principal violist for the Martha Graham Dance Company. In addition, she had the honour of playing for Pierre Boulez’s eightieth birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall. Her continuing commitment to contemporary music includes performances with the Group for Contemporary Music, the ISCM Chamber Players, the Ensemble Sospeso, Ensemble 21, the New York New Music Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, the Composers’ Guild, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Composers Forum, Musicians’ Accord, and Steve Reich and Musicians. Lois Martin is also on the faculty of the Composers Conference at Wellesley College and has taught at Princeton University. The Group for Contemporary Music 8.559190 5 6 8.559190 559190 bk Feldman US 2/11/05 10:00 Page 2

Morton Feldman (1926-1987) admiration for the music of Anton Webern5. Feldman 1 Ben Hudson, the first violinist on this recording, was The Group for Contemporary Music String Quartet (1979) does not follow strict serial procedures for ordering the the leader of the Columbia Quartet. chromatic scale, rather he starts with a chromatic subset In 1985 The Group for Contemporary Music was awarded a citation from the American Academy and Institute of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet (1979) follows over a characterized the String Quartet as a natural result of his which he utilizes as his basic material. Typically, he works 2 February 1981 at the CalArts Contemporary Music Arts and Letters as follows: “The Group for Contemporary Music, founded in 1962 by Harvey Sollberger and decade of compositional activity where the composer work up to that time: with groupings of three to eight notes (a three pitch class Festival. The audience at this performance was so full of Charles Wuorinen ... changed the musical climate by redefining the standards of performance of knowing, was constantly occupied with a new piece for orchestra. chromatic sequence, such as C sharp, D, E flat, serving for tension that Feldman later characterized it as “like a demanding contemporary composition. It was the first collection of musicians joined in ensemble to present new In the eleven years before the Quartet he produced “Mel Powell used the word at his talk the other him as the most fundamental of building blocks.) From lynch mob”. music exclusively and appropriately, with the necessary preparation, in time and understanding. Today its ideals, fifteen orchestral works, beginning with On Time and day, a term which I feel very important to me. these pitch class groupings he realizes a musical idea and its personnel have spawned a population of such groups across the country...wherever the music of our time has the Instrumental Factor (1969) up to Violin and The term is strategy ... I don’t like to give things through an aspect of orchestration, registration or 3 Completed on 13th May, 1981. Its original title was its rightful place.” For four decades, the Group has been central to the American new music scene, and for more Orchestra (1979). In the following eight years only a name. This is my compositional strategy, I rhythmic patterning. The result is an identifiable musical Patterns in a Chromatic Field, a title equally applicable than a generation has trained or introduced a large number of distinguished musicians. The Group’s primary aim is three orchestral works were written, The Turfan don’t want to give things a name. If I have module which is brought back at various times in the to the String Quartet. to present a broad spectrum of the highest compositional achievements of our time, from the classic works of our Fragments (1980), Coptic Light (1986) and For Samuel repetition I don’t call it repetition. It looks like course of a particular work. With each return the material century to emerging new talents, never bowing to fashions of the moment, but always supporting excellence in Beckett (1987). With the String Quartet, Feldman’s repetition, it doesn’t sound like repetition ... is altered; sometimes this is subtle (such as a cello figure 4 Feldman had high regard for Varèse. When they composition and performance. attention turned almost exclusively to chamber music, subsequently played by the violin - in the same octave). It created a professorial chair in music composition at the and particularly, to the long piece. This change, I would never let a student of mine put in a repeat is a modular form of construction, with an obvious debt to University at Buffalo for Feldman, he asked that they however, was not made without a certain degree of sign. I would say, “something’s happening, what Stravinsky, but also to his own music from the 1950s name the chair after Varèse. Benjamin Hudson uncertainty. if you wanted to change your mind?” where he composed graphic scores on a grid. The String Quartet was first performed on 4th May, A note about tempos: scores from Feldman’s last peri- 5 Two Webern rows are quoted toward the end of Violin Benjamin Hudson was born in the State of Illinois and grew up in California. He studied with famous violin teachers 1980, by the Columbia Quartet1 at the Drawing Center I copy like an idiot. Until finally I put a double od usually carry the tempo mark 63 to 66 (to the quarter and Orchestra, written for Paul Zukofsky. At one time such as Oscar Shumsky, Joseph Gingold, Donald Weilerstein, Joseph Silverstein and Henryk Szeryng. During his in New York City. The performance lasted well over bar line in and I just write fifteen times, seven note), indicating a slow tempo with a certain degree of he considered entitling this violin concerto Why years in New York from 1975-1995, he was concertmaster of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Clarion Chamber one and a half hours, hence the nick-name of “100 times, nine times. But even that became a great fluidity. In practice he was not generally critical if the Webern? Orchestra, Carnegie Hall’s New York Pops Orchestra and the Dance Theatre of Harlem Orchestra. He was also minutes” by which this piece is known. A repeat concession. It was really a concession to my performer(s) took a slower tempo. He was equally happy, concertmaster of Sweden’s Drottningholm Court Theatre Orchestra for nine seasons and concertmaster of the performance by the same group took place a month later eyes, because I want to copy my own music... for example, with a performance of Triadic Memories 6 This observation is based on his expressed distaste for Hanover Band in London. As soloist and concertmaster, he has worked with famous conductors such as James during June in the Buffalo Festival. At this point which lasted over one hour as with another which lasted the natural timbre of such instruments as oboe or Levine, Pierre Boulez, Lukas Foss and Dennis Russell Davies. While in New York, Hudson was first violinist of the Feldman seems to have hesitated, for when he returned So I don’t call things a name, because I repeat closer to two. His tempo marks became, as it were, a clarinet and his avoidance of these instruments in his Columbia String Quartet, well known for its performances and recordings of contemporary music. He was also first to composing he created three works of more or less things for different reasons... maximum limit for interpretation. This is not to suggest later chamber works (with the exception of Clarinet and violinist of Speculum Musicae and the Group for Contemporary Music, New York’s two leading contemporary conventional length. It was not until after the first West that there are no boundaries as to how slow a Feldman String Quartet). It is true that in the late 1970s there are music ensembles. Since 1995, he has been concertmaster/director of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. He currently Coast performance of the Quartet2, almost a year later, For example, if we asked the question, “isn’t work can be performed. His interest was in creating a a handful of chamber works and one orchestra piece that leads half of the season’s concerts from the violin. He has led international tours to Japan, Korea, China and South that he returned to explore the long piece. The over- there a certain type of material that you can gradually unfolding piece where the perception of time use the oboe in a featured rôle. These, however, were America. He has directed recordings including the Brahms Sextets and baroque works by Biber, Corelli, Handel, seventy-minute Untitled Composition for cello and repeat and can’t repeat?” “What’s repeatable becomes distorted. Too slow a tempo can have the inspired by the virtuosity of a specific performer. This Avison/Scarlatti, Boccherini and Sammartini. Throughout his career, Benjamin Hudson has been very active in the piano, was completed shortly thereafter3, and finally, material? “You can’t just repeat...” opposite effect, making each component of a musical also explains, in part, why the oboe is often placed in its performance of baroque and classical music on period instruments. He has also specialised in contemporary music. the success of Triadic Memories for solo piano, dated What I think of it now is that I’m watching gesture seem like a major event. highest register where its timbre is more ambiguous. He has performed and recorded works by such composers as Elliot Carter, Charles Wuorinen, Morton Feldman, 23rd July, 1981, committed him fully to this new some bugs on a slide, and I’m just watching Characteristic of Feldman’s sound world in his last John Cage, Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams. In the area of baroque and classical music, he has directed direction. how I feel .. . period are the over-all soft dynamic level and a preference 7 In his next work, Untitled Composition, he achieves a recordings of the complete Violin Concertos and Brandenburg Concertos of J. S. Bach and Bach’s complete Art of Keenly aware of the controversy surrounding the for instruments with simple overtone structures (such as simpler timbre in the cello by having it play harmonics Fugue with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. He has also recorded Bach’s Violin Sonatas in a version for violin, length of the Quartet from its première the year before, So the String Quartet has a lot to do with that flute, celesta, vibraphone)6. In string writing he often uses almost continually. guitar and basso continuo, and, on period instruments, a highly acclaimed version of Mendelssohn’s Violin Feldman began his 1981 CalArts lecture by discussing kind of watching and letting it go. And the the mute as a way of making the complex overtone Concerto with the Hanover Band as well as the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas with pianist, Mary Verney, for the length of a minute, the moral being that even a reason the piece is so long is that I got into structure these instruments have, less so7. The String Nimbus Records. minute can be a very long time. Although the topic that dangerous territory. I let things go…” Quartet calls for the use of mutes throughout, offering the afternoon was to be the use of the Twelve-Tone unique string quartet timbre heard on this recording. Technique in Varèse’s Déserts4, Feldman used the Feldman’s harmonic language during this time was occasion to provide some insight to his own music. He chromatic, influenced partly by his respect and Douglas Cohen

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1994 & AMERICAN CLASSICS 1 String Quartet (1979) 78:35 Morton Feldman met John Cage 2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd. • Made in USA The Group for Contemporary Music at a concert of Webern’s music in 1950, and the two became firm Benjamin Hudson, Violin FELDMAN: friends. Like Cage, Feldman Carol Zeavin, Violin Lois Martin, Viola experimented with non-standard Joshua Gordon, Cello notation and elements of chance in his early compositions, but he is

WORLD PREMIERE best-known for his later “long String Quartet

String Quartet RECORDING pieces”, of which the 1979 String Quartet was his first. The work is First issued on Koch International Classics in 1994. typical of Feldman in its use of This project was made possible with support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support was muted instruments, soft dynamics provided by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music and the and slowly unfolding musical

FELDMAN: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. DDD structures. Recorded at the Recital Hall, Music Division, State University of New York, Purchase, on 11th and 12th January, 1993. Publisher: Universal Edition Booklet notes in English 8.559190 Produced and engineered by Judith Sherman

Executive Producer: Howard Stokar www.naxos.com 8.559190 Booklet notes: Douglas Cohen Cover photograph: Morton Feldman in Beverly Hills, 1986 (Betty Freeman / www.lebrecht.co.uk) American flag, folk artist, 1880s. NAXOS