Review: Six Poems from Neruda's Alturas...

Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's verse (Six Poems from Neruda's "Alturas...") is a disturbing view of many social issues and humankind's continual struggle to cope. Felder, while not attempting literal portrayals, does capture the flavor of uncertainty in his gestural music. The first and shorter movement is an environment obsessed with pell-mell forward impetus. It sounds chaotic at first, but if you stay with it, an order and a strong dramatic profile emerge. The music has an overriding feverish quality which is very well projected via turbulent sometimes jumbled lines and effective percussion bursts. This is music which may be harsh and gritty, but clearly has a mind of its own and is definitely going somewhere. The longer second movement lies in quiet linear expressions in the strings with subtle wind sub texts colored by some extraordinary percussion effects. This continual, intimate unfolding of musical thoughts is suffused with a subtle beauty and guided by a sense of logic which makes the relatively consonant concluding string chord absolutely right. On second hearing (April 7), Felder's music made the same strong impression. All that remains now is for the Philharmonic to record this work.