Loose Baggy Monsters
Sometimes the solution to a piece being too long . . . is to make it even longer.
I find that dance intoxicating. I know not everyone does — even I sometimes find it too exhausting to be worth the trouble — and there are also, G-d knows, massive sprawling works that just don’t manage the strange trick of coming together and collapse into endless wayward tedium, but when everything’s clicking, they offer rewards that are utterly unique to them. The explosive ecstasy of Turangalîla’s finale is obliteratingly potent. The ethereal fourth hour of Feldman’s second quartet unfolds a sacred Mystery that lands as an intimate, precious gift.
