 “Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello” constitutes the last, memorable composition by Morton Feldman, which was completed in the year of his death, 1987. This instrumental grouping reflects the two preferences of the American composer regarding timbre : the piano, to which very many pieces were destined, from 1950 to 1986, and the string quartet (here reduced to three instruments), used by Feldman both alone (“Structures”, of 1951, “Three Pieces”, of 1954-56, and the colossal works of his last creative period : Quartet I, 1979, and Quartet II, 1983, the latter of great length : about 5 hours), which accompanied by the orchestra (“String Quartet and Orchestra”, 1973), or by other instruments (“Two Pieces” for clarinet and string quartet, 1961, “Four Instruments”, which the piano replacing the second violin, 1975, “Clarinet and String Quartet”, 1983, “Violin and String Quartet”, 1985, “Piano and String Quartet”, also of 1985, and this piece). The very expanded dimensions of this extraordinary “Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello” are in accordance with the prevalent tendency of the works, of the highest quality, written in the course of the 1980s, which as is well known are marked by extremely long duration (with the aim, according to Feldman himself, of avoiding the routine of the “usual twenty-minute piece”, even if such a temporal hypertrophy in chamber pieces, which obviously do not have the phonic resources of an orchestra, can sometimes present problematic aspects in terms of prolonged attention).
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