(x-post from the listening thread)
The aleatoric piece (here in two different performances) is surprisingly Scelsi-like, but I'm not sure how exactly to listen to these kinds of compositions. What bothers me is the question of how much control exactly does the composer have in creating something like this? Does he simply mark out the orchestration and let the players do what they will? The result sounds too homogeneous for that to be the case. At any rate, the only thing one can go by for want of knowledge of any conceptual intent on the composer's part is to go by what one hears -- and I like what I hear, but am not intrigued enough to listen for more than once or twice.
The other, more conventional (for Cage, anyway) pieces seem more substantial. The suite for toy piano is an interesting way of composing for extremely limited means, and yet achieving a result that transcends the means. The Harrison orchestration seems to be a spectacular missing of the point, but I could be wrong.
The Seasons is still in somewhat familiar territory for me. I am not sure if I understand his representation of the different character of the four seasons, but the spare orchestral textures and gentle melodicism are immediately appealing.
The prepared piano concerto I have yet to crack. The dichotomy of the soloist and the orchestra (they rarely sound simultaneously) and the sparseness of the scoring reminds me of Webern, but the strange timbres of the prepared piano remind me that this is another soundworld entirely. Listening as sound-qua-sound, it's mesmerizing, even if I don't really get it.