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The Radio 3 Boards > The Music Boards > Music Through The Ages > 20th Century > John Cage, Sonatas and Interludes, Concert, etc.
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Author Topic: John Cage, Sonatas and Interludes, Concert, etc.  (Read 235 times)
harmonyharmony
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« on: 00:02:55, 09-03-2007 »
Our university has just acquired the Wergo (WER 6247-2) 3 CD set of 'The 25-Year Retrospective Concert of the Music of John Cage' (recorded in performance at Town Hall, New York, May 15th, 1958).

I used the disc for my teaching this afternoon and played both the first Sonata (from Sonatas and Interludes) and the opening of Concert.
Does anyone have any opinions of these recordings? The sonata sounded a bit heavy and noisy. The Concert didn't seem to have a good balance of sound (but then it's not a piece I know terribly well).
Does anyone know of better recordings of either work that they could recommend?

I've also got to recommend a recording of the Music of Changes...
Any thoughts?
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #1 on: 00:06:08, 09-03-2007 »
Quote from: harmonyharmony on 00:02:55, 09-03-2007
Our university has just acquired the Wergo (WER 6247-2) 3 CD set of 'The 25-Year Retrospective Concert of the Music of John Cage' (recorded in performance at Town Hall, New York, May 15th, 1958).

I used the disc for my teaching this afternoon and played both the first Sonata (from Sonatas and Interludes) and the opening of Concert.
Does anyone have any opinions of these recordings? The sonata sounded a bit heavy and noisy. The Concert didn't seem to have a good balance of sound (but then it's not a piece I know terribly well).
Does anyone know of better recordings of either work that they could recommend?

Try Gerard Frémy on ETCETERA if you can find it.

Quote
I've also got to recommend a recording of the Music of Changes...
Any thoughts?

Henck or Schleiermacher (don't know the latter's Sonatas and Interludes, but on the basis of the other recordings, I reckon it would be good).

Also, in general, anything of Margaret Leng Tan is worth hearing.
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Evan Johnson
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« Reply #2 on: 04:32:14, 09-03-2007 »
Wasn't there just a thread somewhere around here about the surprisingly numerous recordings of the Sonatas and Interludes?

Anyway: I treated myself awhile back to the MDG box set of Schleiermacher playing the complete piano works of Cage (something like 25 CDs' worth), and it is a really fantastic collection.  A lot of it's on the slow side, particularly the big collections (Etudes Australes, Music of Changes, etc.), for what that's worth; the prepared piano sound is drop-dead gorgeous, both in terms of the instrument itself and the recording thereof, and the non-S&I prepared piano pieces are the best I've ever heard.  I'm also partial to his version of 34'whatever.whatever".

The "Concert" obviously is not a piece that lives terribly well on a single recording; but that with Stephen Drury et al. on Mode works for me.
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autoharp
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« Reply #3 on: 07:39:16, 09-03-2007 »
I must say I've been a big fan of Maro Ajemian's account of Sonatas 1-4  on this recording  on account of the rhythm, sonority and the interpretive approach.
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