Steve Smith on Morton Feldman

"Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 2 is hardly standard fare for a housewarming. Composed in 1983, the work runs more than six hours when played complete. But somehow it seemed ideally suited for the first public event mounted by Issue Project Room, a vital avant-garde performing arts presenter, in its future home. … A string quartet drawn from the fine new-music ensemble Ne(x)tworks did the honors. … Two members of the ensemble that performed on Sunday, the violinist Cornelius Dufallo and the violist Kenji Bunch, had previously played the Quartet No. 2 several times as members of the Flux Quartet and were involved in that group’s invaluable recording on the Mode label. Those experiences surely helped Mr. Dufallo and Mr. Bunch prepare their colleagues, Christopher Otto, a violinist and a member of the JACK Quartet, and Yves Dharamraj, a cellist, for the experience. Despite its Brobdingnagian length, the quartet consists of Lilliputian parcels: succinct gestures, tiny shudders, rising and falling melodic cells. Sustaining mood at length while keeping an accurate count of repeats is one challenge; obviously, physical stamina is another" ("Music Review," New York Times, 4/13/10).