Morton Feldman

For Bunita Marcus was written in 1985. "This work, which I have dedicated to Bunita Marcus, [...] deals with the death of my mother, and with the notion of a slow death. I simply didn't want the piece to die. So I used this unwillingness compositionally in order to keep the piece alive, like a patient suffering from an terminal disease, for as long as possible." (Feldman) It is not the loud raging, the last furious revolt of a dying human being that Feldman depicts here, but a slow nodding off and trickling away, already far removed from reality. Feldman draws out the composition over great lengths, with gently throbbing motifs appearing ever and again, always in danger of being lost, and thus extends these final moments yet further, taking the now to its limits. If just one tone should vanish unnoticed somewhere in this no man's land, the whole work will be lost. It is almost uncanny how focused Markus Hinterhäuser goes about transforming even the smallest emotions into a kind of relaxed tension, filling every single tone and pause.