New York Classical Review

Morton Feldman

Music of extremely long duration has a certain pull. Whether it’s an extended Wagnerian drama or something more abstract, like Satie’s Vexations, works that last four hours or more are immersive in a way outside the standard classical concert—time doesn’t just pass, the world seems to have changed when one reenters it.

This Saturday, one can have that experience fill their whole afternoon with Morton Feldman’s For Philip Guston. Feldman was the modern master of long duration music and still unique in the entire classical continuum for how he used time.

Concertgoers can spend somewhere between four-five hours immersed in this late, major work, via the S.E.M. Ensemble trio of flutist Peter Kotik, pianist Joseph Kubera, and percussionist Chris Nappi. As a unit, these musicians have been performing this work for over 20 years and each performance could be considered definitive.

Peter Kotik, Joseph Kubera, and Chris Nappi play For Philip Guston, 12 p.m. Saturday, 26 Willow Place, Brooklyn Heights semensemble.org