John Cage

John Cage - John Cage - 1989 (1974)
Avant-Garde | EAC (FLAC+LOG) | 141 MB (WinRAR) | 1989 | Cover
(Performers: Demetrio Stratos, Juan Hidalgo, Walter Marchetti, Gianni-Emilio Simonetti)

On this 1970s recording, John Cage directs his compositions "Music for Marcel Duchamp," "Music for Amplified Toy Pianos," "Radio Music," "4:33," and "Sixty Two Mesostics Re Merce Cunningham." The works cover the most creative period of the American composer's career, 1947 through 1972. What makes this recording special is the performance from the Italian group that includes Juan Hildago, Walter Marchetti, Gianni Simonetti, and Demetrio Stratos. One of the better realizations of John Cage's work. ~ Skip Jansen, All Music Guide

Morton Feldman’s “For John Cage” is the second of seven large-scale works dedicated to artists, a series which includes Frank O’Hara, Bunita Marcus, Christian Wolff, Stefan Wolpe, Philip Guston, and Samuel Beckett. Feldman met John Cage in 1950, at a time when Feldman’s composition studies with Stefan Wolpe had reached a kind of dead end. Cage gave him encouragement, enthusiasm and permission to be himself. They remained friends until Feldman’s death in 1987. In its austere texture, “For John Cage” gives equal weight to the violin and piano parts. The fact that the two instruments often play similar material makes the contrast between the sustained sounds of the violin and the decaying sounds of the piano especially clear.

This historic release of a simultaneous performance by David Tudor and John Cage of Rainforest II and Mureau, recorded live by Radio Bremen on May 5, 1972, preserves the only surviving performance of the second of Tudor’s Rainforest series. In addition, it documents one of the precious few recorded collaborations between these two visionaries.