Cage:Trombone & Piano

Schleiermacher, Steffen, Svoboda, Mike

MDG 613 1510-2

"This set is devoted to the Music for Piano series almost entirely written in the 1950s, which is neglected and mostly unavailable. You can see why performers have found these pieces less attractive. After Cage's crisis year of 1952, which saw him produce the so-called silent piece 4'33", he was obsessed with removing his own tastes and desires from his compositions. Before he became fully committed to the I Ching's random numbers he marked out imperfections in the manuscript paper he was using as a way of getting the notes. He said he looked at his paper and suddenly realised that all the music was there. This procedure also settled the density of notes on the page. In the whole series the performer is left to decide dynamics and pace in a continuity dominated by single notes. If this sounds austere, we're reckoning without Schleiermacher's ingenuity. Cage specifies various types of sound production, apart from the use of the keys: primarily plucking the strings from inside or muting them. As in Schleiermach's prepared piano recordings, the quality of sound has been carefully considered. A muted low note or a single plucked string can be marvellously evocative in conjunction with conventionally produced pitches. The ambience of the prepared piano isn't far away. Further, Schleiermacher avails himself of Cage's provision for several of these pieces to be played together, which he does at intervals in the series. Since we've heard the same pieces solo, the superimposed versions bring back familiar material in a fascinating way.Fastidiously researched and performed, Schleiermacher says he's taken the pieces seriously.In so doing he's begun a new chapter of virtually unknown Cage.— Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

CD x 1

MDG

6/30/08

760623151021