The year 2008 marked the fortieth anniversary of Reunion, a performance in which games of chess determined the form and acoustical ambience of a musical event. The concert – held at the Ryerson Theatre in Toronto, Canada – began shortly after 8:30 on the evening of March 5, 1968, and concluded at approximately 1:00 a.m. the next morning. Principal players were John Cage, who conceived (but did not actually “compose”) the work; Marcel Duchamp and his wife Alexina (Teeny); and composers David Behrman, Gordon Mumma, David Tudor, and Lowell Cross. Except for a brief curtain call with Merce Cunningham and Dance Company in Buffalo, NY five days later (March 10, 1968), Duchamp made his last public stage appearance – in the role of chess master – in Reunion.
Trente ans après sa rencontre avec Marcel Duchamp en 1941, le compositeur John Cage confie souvenirs et anecdotes, explique la façon dont leurs oeuvres s'influencent mutuellement tout en s'opposant et rend hommage à l'artiste. …
A fresh approach to one of contemporary composition’s most iconoclastic and inventive figures, issued on the occasion of John Cage’s 100th birthday. Early Cage is the subject here, strikingly original songs and piano pieces from the 1930s and 1940s. Songs in which Cage sets words by writers whose vision was as independent as his own – James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, E. E. Cummings. As Paul Griffiths writes, “The music exists in singing that has a raw, living edge, and it exists in piano tone that can be utterly simple and utterly remarkable. There is also a third presence that of the producer, bringing forward the extraordinary resonances that come from Lubimov’s piano, with preparation or without.”
Steffen Schleiermacher's monumental traversal of the complete piano music of John Cage will be essential for the collection of any fan of the composer's, unless he or she has already purchased the previously released ten volumes (a total of 18 discs) that are boxed together here and reissued in recognition of the composer's 100th anniversary in 2012. The 20-hour compilation is a testimony to Cage's hugely prolific output, and certainly constitutes one of the most significant collections of keyboard music of the 20th century. There could hardly be a more sympathetic and skillful interpreter of Cage's oeuvre than German pianist/composer Steffen Schleiermacher.
Aki Takahashi made her public debut shortly after graduating from the Tokyo University of Arts with a masters degree in 1970. While acknowledged for her classical musicianship, her enthusiasm and acclaim as a new music interpreter have attracted the attention of many composers. Cage, Feldman, Takemitsu, Yun, Oliveros, Ruders, Satoh, Lucier and Garland, to name a few, have all created works for her.