Joel Feigin: Piano and Chamber Music, Volume One
Over the past century or so, composers have tended to see themselves as either traditionalists or modernists. The music of Joel Feigin (born in New York in 1951) bridges both worlds, combining the resources of tonality and atonality with equal relish, naturally extending the styles of the recent past. Its freewheeling energy is often tempered by an elegant restraint, sometimes revealing the warm, humanist impulse behind his sound-world. This first volume of his piano and chamber music follows a lusty piano trio and a moving tribute to a much-missed teacher with four sets of variations, three by Feigin and one an arrangement of Bach, the composer who Feigin says is the root of all his music.
Claudia Schaer, violin
Robert LaRue, cello
Marc Peloquin, piano
Mikhail Dubov, piano
Mona Khaba, piano
Listen To This Recording:
Mountain and Rivers Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano (1990)* (16:16)
- I. Sostenuto e misterioso – (2:02)
- II. Allegretto grazioso – (4:35)
- III. Adagio (4:48)
- IV. Vivace (5:22)
Elegy in memoriam Renée Longy for Piano (1979, rev. 1986) (12:52)
- Adagio molto rubato – (5:24)
- Grave, quasi recitative (7:28)
- Variations on Empty Space for Piano (2008) (12:12)
- Veränderungen for Violin and Piano (1994) (12:25)
Variations on a Theme of Arnold Schoenberg (1995)* (13:56)
- Theme. Sehr langsam – (0:54)
- Var. 1 (0:47)
- Var. 2, Allegro – (0:33)
- Var. 3, Andante (1:13)
- Var. 4, Allegro – (0:24)
- Var. 5, L’istesso tempo – (0:23)
- Var. 6, Presto – (0:27)
- Var. 7, Drammatico, quasi recitative (0:47)
- Var. 8, Adagio (Tempo primo) (0:55)
- Var. 9, L’istesso tempo – (2:35)
- Vivace – (3:23)
- Sehr langsam (Tempo primo) (1:35)
- Fourteen Canonic Variations after J.S. Bach BWV1087 for Two Pianos (1995)* (6:14)
*First Recordings
Fanfare :
‘This amazing work [Piano trio] casts a powerful spell that will linger on long after it has concluded. […]
[in Elegy in memoriam Renée Longy] Feigin writes as masterfully in an atonal style as he does in any other. While eschewing tonal centers, these more advanced works nevertheless connect with the listener in remarkable fashion. […] I do find the work a most touching tribute. […]
[in Veränderungen] The listener will remain engaged not only by the composer’s mastery of the atonal style, but by his secure flow of ideas in which busyness is contrasted with simplicity, power with delicacy, and so on. […]
As is typical of releases on the Toccata Classics issues, the annotations and presentation for the music of this American master are not to be bettered. Nor are the performances anything less than stellar all around. There is simply no reason for the reader to delay in obtaining this disc at his first opportunity.’
—David DeBoor Canfield, Fanfare, March 2026
Fanfare :
‘Joel Feigin’s music as heard here is awesome, freely blending tonal and atonal aspects to create strong, vivid emotional textures. Definitely recommended if you like 20th- and 21st-century music at all.’
—Mark Gabrish Conlan, Fanfare, March 2026
Fanfare :
‘The close of [Variations on Empty Space] is of crystalline beauty, achieved both via a clearly superb piano technician (much is up high) and by Khaba’s playing. And finally for this piece, good on Toccata Classics for including substantial uninterrupted silence at the end. This piece does need to resonate on. Mona Khaba has all the concentration, and beauty of sound, required. […]
Claudia Schaer is magnificent in conquering the faster variations [of Veranderungen]. […] the music is a glistening hypnotist’s crystal, sparking out in all sorts of directions. Nothing emotionally prepares one for the effect of the final piano chorale against pure, high violin. Unforgettable. […]
Dubov plays [the Variations on a Theme of Arnold Schoenberg] beautifully, his chords (simultaneities) sounding perfectly together. […]
his disc is touted as Piano and Chamber Music, Volume One, so roll on volume two. There is much variety here in the music of a talented and clearly underrated composer.’
—Colin Clarke, Fanfare, March 2026
Fanfare :
‘The album features some outstanding performers who attack the music with conviction and real technical mastery. Although we are treated to some stretches of atonal language, I found everything perfectly accessible. If you are attracted to a piece like Berg’s Violin Concerto, you should not have a problem with anything here. Feigin is a talented composer, and I very much enjoyed this CD. I look forward to the next volume. Recommended.’
—Michael Vaillancourt, Fanfare, March 2026
Fanfare :
‘[Variations on a Theme of Arnold Schoenberg] is the masterpiece built on a masterpiece that is Joel Feigin’s Variations on a Theme of Arnold Schoenberg, where Feigin devises an utterly plausible Schoenbergian development of that last of the six pieces—the theme—in the first variation before taking us to ever more interesting places in the remaining seven. […] It’s remarkable writing, realized with skill and exquisite judgement by Dubov on this new disc of Feigin’s Piano and Chamber Music from Toccata. […]
The album starts with the lovely Mountain and Rivers for piano trio, beautifully played with lyricism and sensitivity by Claudia Schaer, Robert LaRue, and Marc Peloquin, who also summon drama and attack when required, especially in the work’s second and fourth movements. It’s followed by Elegy in memoriam Renée Longy, for solo piano, a somber, slow moving and clearly heartfelt memorial for a renowned teacher, rendered by Dubov with ear-catching gradations of color. […] The profoundly evocative Variations on Empty Space, […] is a fascinating study of contrast and timbre, where a simple song setting (of a Buddhist sutra) is set against a sound world gradually cohering in tonality. I can’t imagine it being more sensitively rendered than Mona Khaba does here. […] What’s fascinating is to hear the variety within that overall form that Feigin effects. Veränderungen (“Changes”), for violin and piano, another memorial piece, is a tremendous exploration not just of how a theme and variations could play out in the late 20th century, where tonality makes interesting forays into a predominantly non-tonal world, but also of the seemingly endless permutations two instruments can offer in terms of sound. We hear contrasts again, singly or together, but also degrees of consonance, eloquently expressed here by Schaer and Peloquin. […] On my intensive listening for this review, it’s those Schoenberg variations I’ve been most struck by, but really everything here is thoroughly rewarding. Toccata has provided super recorded sound throughout and has badged this Volume One. So here’s hoping for many more.’
—Dominic Hartley, Fanfare, March 2026
Fanfare :
‘Feigin’s eclectic deployment of tonality, coupled with his affection for the inherent beauty of the featured instruments, and mastery of thematic manipulation, yield great rewards. […]
The performances of the various works and recorded sound are exemplary. Joel Feigin’s deeply expressive and communicative music is well served here. Recommended.’
—Ken Meltzer, Fanfare, March 2026