Patterns in a Chromatic Field at Brunswick Green: Alex Raineri and Katherine Philp join The Sound Barrier!

A live performance of a major piece by Morton Feldman is always a very significant musical event wherever it happens and this week in Melbourne, at the Brunswick Green, Brisbane-based pianist Alex Raineri and Melbourne cellist Katherine Philp will be performing the immersive and otherworldly Patterns in a Chromatic Field: almost one and half hours of hesitating fragments of sonic beauty, hovering constantly between the settled and unsettled space where patterns of sound shift, jagged and yet woven together. It is like a mesmerising patchwork, where colours and textures shift in mysterious, uncertain blocks, a gossamer-like thread holding it all in place.

This weekend on The Sound Barrier, Alex and Katherine will be joining me to talk about the piece and, as well as listening to a small fragment of an earlier performance they gave of it in Brisbane late last year, I will also be playing a complete recording throughout the major portion of the show.

Morton Feldman, who died in 1987, has left a troubled legacy in modern musical history: a personality that many found more than just a little difficult; and still allegations against him, especially by his closest musical associate, Bunita Marcus, cast a shadow on how, now with the insights of #MeToo, we should approach him. But there is no denying the beauty and intrigue of his music, nor of the incredible creativity and artistry that we get to experience from the musicians who perform it. It is in the spirit of honour of the music, and of these two sensational young artists, that I am bringing this work to you this weekend.

I hope that you can join me this Sunday night at 10.00 PM (AEDT) on PBS – either locally at 106.7 on the Melbourne FM dial, or on PBS Digital, or anywhere live via the PBS app or online – for this unique opportunity to hear Feldman's 1981 masterpiece, and into the insights of these two magnificent young musicians who are meeting its challenges. The show will also be available to listen back to, online, shortly after it has gone live to air.