Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel was composed in 1971 to be performed in a very singular place, the multi-faith chapel in Houston, Texas, built by Dominique and John de Menil to house 14 of Mark Rothko’s darkest, bleakest canvases. Scored for solo viola, chorus, celesta and percussion, it has become one of Feldman’s most widely performed works, and it provided the starting point for the latest of the Manchester Collective’s programmes, for which the group was joined by the chamber choir Sansara.
The popularity of Rothko Chapel in comparison with Feldman’s other works of the 1970s and 80s is partly thanks to its manageable dimensions. At around half an hour long it is considerably shorter than most of his late masterpieces – but it’s also more approachable, more structurally straightforward and explicitly tonal than much of his music. The achingly beautiful melody that the solo viola discovers in the final moments provides the resolution the whole work has been seeking. In this exquisitely moulded performance, Ruth Gibson’s unaffectedly eloquent viola playing made it seem both conclusion and consolation.
