MUSIC
FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019
5:00 PM

Feldman: For Philip Guston
S.E.M. Ensemble
Willow Place Auditorium
26 Willow Place, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn

Free (registration available)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-sem-ensemble-presents-for-philip-guston-tickets-57632618714

Composer Morton Feldman and painter Philip Guston were best friends until Guston's return to figurative painting from Abstract Expressionism alienated Feldman (people were serious back then).  When Guston died about 10 years later, Feldman felt bad enough to compose a five-hour piece in his memory.  And it's one of Feldman's absolute masterpieces.  These hyper-expansive late Feldman pieces are unlike anything else in music:  you're like, "I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm . . . transported!  I'm fascinated!  I'm enraptured!  The slightest harmonic variation has never hit me with such sublime force before!  Time has become meaningless to me!"  If you can get behind Bruckner on the one hand or Autechre on the other, you owe it to yourself to try Feldman, if you haven't already.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  After five hours of harmonic floating, a nice dinner is, happily, right around the corner:  the eminently pleasant Sardinian spot River Deli.  (N.B.:  Cash only.)