John Cage (1912-92)

[torut]

I don't have Sabine Liebner's Etudes Australes but I love her recordings of Christian Wolff and Feldman's Triadic Memories (one of my favorite Feldman recordings.) The way she plays is delicate and tranquil, but not dull. I suppose her interpretation of Cage's works should be nice. (She also recorded Ustvolskaya's complete piano works, very wild ones , but I have not heard it yet.)

[springrite]

Bought the conch recording and looking forward to it!

[San Antone]

Roaratorio

https://www.youtube.com/v/bdHe4c10smY

[milk]

I asked the same question in the 1950-2000 thread, and some guy kindly posted this. I enjoyed all of them. Christian Wolff's work is nice.
For Andrea Newmann, this video may be better.
This is for two partially prepared pianos. Whittington was influenced by Cage.

Oh great. Lots of stuff for me to check out!

[Mandryka]

Roaratorio

https://www.youtube.com/v/bdHe4c10smY

http://vimeo.com/20851154

[torut]

Some orchestral music from Cage - Sixteen Dances

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The Boston Modern Orchestra Project led by Gil Rose does a great job with this music.

This may be an old news but Mode released a recording of a solo piano version of Sixteen Dances. Walter Zimmermann discovered and edited the score. It gave me a very different impression, except the movements in which the piano is dominant. An alternate version for piano and percussion by Zimmermann (XV & XVI) is really good. The sound of percussion is more subtle than that in Gil Rose's performance.
Although it is short (4'43"), another discovered composition, Haiku, is very nice. Sometimes beautiful melodies can be felt, especially in I & II, but it becomes more atonal in the following movements. It was composed in 1950-51, as well as Sixteen Dances, before he started using chance method, and it is as though displaying the transition from early melodic compositions to abstract ones using chance operation.

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[milk]

I asked the same question in the 1950-2000 thread, and some guy kindly posted this. I enjoyed all of them. Christian Wolff's work is nice.
For Andrea Newmann, this video may be better.
This is for two partially prepared pianos. Whittington was influenced by Cage.

Having got through some of this non-Cage prepared piano stuff I'm disappointed to say that none of it is jumping out at me. I bought the Scott because of the clip, but can't stand the singing. I'll keep trying though.

[torut]

Having got through some of this non-Cage prepared piano stuff I'm disappointed to say that none of it is jumping out at me. I bought the Scott because of the clip, but can't stand the singing. I'll keep trying though.

Oh, that's unfortunate. For me, Wolff and Whittington are worth paying money, but it's personal taste.
Please let me know if you find a good prepared piano piece. I would love to hear new stuff using the instrument.

[Mandryka]

Having got through some of this non-Cage prepared piano stuff I'm disappointed to say that none of it is jumping out at me. I bought the Scott because of the clip, but can't stand the singing. I'll keep trying though.

Have you heard Cage's organ music, paricularly The Harmony of Maine? There's a very good recording on spotify by Hans-Ola Ericsson. I find it very compelling.

[milk]

Have you heard Cage's organ music, paricularly The Harmony of Maine? There's a very good recording on spotify by Hans-Ola Ericsson. I find it very compelling.

I'll check it out. I love the organ piece called "souvenir" on "In a landscape" by Drury.

[milk]

Oh, that's unfortunate. For me, Wolff and Whittington are worth paying money, but it's personal taste.
Please let me know if you find a good prepared piano piece. I would love to hear new stuff using the instrument.

Couldn't find the Whittington for download. Maybe I'll look again. But I see a piece called "music for airport furniture" that looks compelling. I have some Wolff that I like but can't locate the prepared piano stuff. Again, I may need to look harder.

[torut]

Couldn't find the Whittington for download. Maybe I'll look again. But I see a piece called "music for airport furniture" that looks compelling. I have some Wolff that I like but can't locate the prepared piano stuff. Again, I may need to look harder.

Sorry, I meant that I would pay for it if it were released. I think Music for Airport Furniture is the only official album of Whittington.
Wolff's prepared piano is recorded by Tilbury and by Schleiermacher, but the latter seems OOP, and I don't have either. Tilbury's may be ordered from the label. But it's at your own risk.

John Tilbury, Christian Wolff, Eddie Prévost: Christian Wolff - early piano music 1951-1961 (Matchless Recordings) http://www.matchlessrecordings.com/wolff-early-piano
Steffen Schleiermacher: Christian Wolff Early Piano Pieces (Hat Art)

[milk]

Sorry, I meant that I would pay for it if it were released. I think Music for Airport Furniture is the only official album of Whittington.
Wolff's prepared piano is recorded by Tilbury and by Schleiermacher, but the latter seems OOP, and I don't have either. Tilbury's may be ordered from the label. But it's at your own risk.

John Tilbury, Christian Wolff, Eddie Prévost: Christian Wolff - early piano music 1951-1961 (Matchless Recordings) http://www.matchlessrecordings.com/wolff-early-piano
Steffen Schleiermacher: Christian Wolff Early Piano Pieces (Hat Art)

Do you recommend Music for Airport Furniture? Anyone? Guess this question belongs in another thread, although, they say Cage created the idea of ambient music.

[torut]

Do you recommend Music for Airport Furniture? Anyone? Guess this question belongs in another thread, although, they say Cage created the idea of ambient music.

I highly recommend Music for Airport Furniture. Beautiful, melancholic music. It is short (23 min) and can be heard on youtube (live). It's just $0.99 at Google Play store, so the damage will be minimal.

I think Satie was the first composer who provided the idea of ambient music. For me, Cage is the opposite: my understanding is that he wanted listeners to concentrate on sounds, whether it is musical or random or unintentional (ambient sounds), while the purpose of ambient music is to be heard without continuous attention, treated as sound wall paper. Some Cage's music can be used as ambient music, but most of them, especially the chance operation works and later number pieces require high concentration. Just IMO.

[Mandryka]

There's a concert by Stephen Drury with a handful of Etudes Australes on youtube. I think the performances really get to the heart of something, among the best I've ever heard of the Cage piano Etudes I think. Stephen Drury recorded some Cage etudes commercially, a live recording, but I was less impressed by that - they seemed less inward and more anonymous than these on youtube. The youtubes are all relatively late and hence more complicated music, the ones on the CD come from the start of the series. Anyway, Stephen Drury is clearly in his element here.

The CD with the Cage Etudes has a Night Fantasy (Carter) which is fabulous.

[milk]

There's a concert by Stephen Drury with a handful of Etudes Australes on youtube. I think the performances really get to the heart of something, among the best I've ever heard of the Cage piano Etudes I think. Stephen Drury recorded some Cage etudes commercially, a live recording, but I was less impressed by that - they seemed less inward and more anonymous than these on youtube. The youtubes are all relatively late and hence more complicated music, the ones on the CD come from the start of the series. Anyway, Stephen Drury is clearly in his element here.

The CD with the Cage Etudes has a Night Fantasy (Carter) which is fabulous.

I must admit I have a hard time with this part of Cage's output. I don't want to give up, but I have a hard time finding a way to enjoy the etudes.

[Mandryka]

I must admit I have a hard time with this part of Cage's output. I don't want to give up, but I have a hard time finding a way to enjoy the etudes.

Well I did try to warn you about Sabine Liebner! you know these pieces offer a huge amount of discretion to the pianist, they almost don't sound like the same music in the hands of different musicians, and Liebner's approach is maybe a bit to cold and mathematical.

[milk]

Well I did try to warn you about Sabine Liebner! you know these pieces offer a huge amount of discretion to the pianist, they almost don't sound like the same music in the hands of different musicians, and Liebner's approach is maybe a bit to cold and mathematical.

I watched one of the videos and it didn't get to me either. It may take time or it may never happen.

[Mandryka]

Thank you. It is interesting, but Crismani's album is the most difficult to obtain among the 4. I only have Sultan.

I guess it is like the difference between the performances contained in Atlas Eclipticalis with Winter Music on Mode ... ? The 1983 performances, in which two works were played simultaneously, are very sparse, about 80-minute long. The separated performances in 1988 are shorter (Atlas: 30 min, Winter Music: 10 min) and easier to listen to.

I guess you're right about that. 

Can you or someone else recommend some intersting recordings of Atlas Eclipticalis for me to listen to?

[bhodges]

I guess you're right about that. 

Can you or someone else recommend some intersting recordings of Atlas Eclipticalis for me to listen to?

Sure, these two below. The first one is part of a terrific overall recording, worth having for the Carter Variations for Orchestra alone, but the Babbitt and Schuller performances are excellent, too. The second one, on Mode, is 3 discs: Atlas Eclipticalis and Winter Music, each performed separately and then simultaneously.

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FYI, for your travel consideration, Levine and the MET Chamber Ensemble are doing Atlas next March:

http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2015/3/8/0500/PM/The-MET-Chamber-Ensemble/

--Bruce