Customer Reviews

Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Cage's "Sonatas & Interludes" go back to when he was actually composing music instead of rolling dice. They're written for a piano which has its strings' vibrations modified by various pieces of hardware to make it into a compact percussion orchestra. Some pieces hark back to Webern, some look ahead to Glass, others sound like gamelan or a Cuban percussion section. In this recording Berman brings out the best in the music, nicely adjusting to its moods and eccentricities. At its bargain price this recording is a must for all interested in the milestones of American music.

I only want to add to the other glowing reviews that if you are someone who wants to expand your taste in music beyond the merely melodic but don't know where to start, this could be a very good place. I'm someone, for example, who has always considered Prokofiev about as far out as my taste could extend. I bought this disc because a friend recommended it (and because it's cheap!) and I love it! In fact, the second volume--Music For Prepared Piano, Vol. 2--just came out here in Europe, and I bought it immediately. I wasn't sorry. It's just as brilliant as the first.

john cage, one of the most provocative of the 20th century minimalist composers, gives us a rare glimpse of accessibility. known for incredibly experimental scores and works, including '4:33', a four and a half minute long moment of silence, some of which are harder to appreciate than others, he was also a master pianist, not afraid to tinker with the inner works, exploring just what sort of music 88 keys and a box full of strings might make with a few things added, like nuts and bolts, spoons and forks, just about anything to broaden the aural spectrum of the instrument. the results, as evidenced here, are extraordinary. without clogging up space with cascades of notes, mr. cage paints a canvas at once haunting and captivating. he asserted that this music was as much a spiritual exercise as an artistic one, exploring the tenets of asian religion in sound, and one must confess that this music indeed fosters contemplation. further, modern twelve-tone music is often stereotyped as beep-and-squonk noise, but here is an example of just how beautiful it can be, as well as exemplifying the inherent structure of modernist classical music. this is a great place for someone new to the music to explore. just a note on the performance itself: mr. berman is excellent, capturing not only mr. cage's structural composition, but also the feel. and with naxos' wonderfully low price, this recording recommends itself. enjoy!

turn the volume all the way up on this one, as naxos engineers have caught every little nuance of the prepared piano. this collection of brief compositions sparkles with warmth and intensity. my favorite is track 18, in which the piano sounds like a gamelan.

if you're new to cage, this CD will grow on you. give it some time.

Edward Wright (see above review) knows more about this stuff than I do. I'm impressed that he has heard not one, not two, not three, but *four* different versions of Cage's Sonatas and Interludes! I thought I was doing great to hear just this one.

I have for a long time been interested in Cage as a sort of iconoclast and philosopher of sorts, so I picked this up at the good old Naxos bargain price, brought it home, listened to the first few pieces, and said, "What is this crap?"

But being no complete musical moron, I figured the idea of the music would grow on me, and grow on me it did. Lately, I want to hear this CD--not my Schubert or Beethoven--all the time. What initially sounded random and chaotic now seems magical. This music is by and large more rhythm and texture based than harmony based. It's tough music. I wonder what Ives would have thought of it (he never heard it, as far as I know).

When I hear Cage, I'm proud to be an American. The same goes for when I hear Ives.

I like this whole CD, but my favorite piece is, now at least, probably the Second Interlude, especially the last minute or so of it. It has a droning, clocklike, dreamy quality to it, but there might also be a little menace there as well, like the soundtrack to a slightly threatening dream. Much of this is, in fact, rather dreamlike.

This CD is positively not conventional Western music. The prepared piano highlights the percussive quality of the instrument (see Sonata 5), and the music seldom repeats itself thematically. It is brimming with ideas, but these are not ideas that everyone will find all that interesting.

John Cage has written his best pieces for prepared piano during 1946-1948,when he composed the sonatas and interludes for this particular genious instrument.His approach to the rythmic structure instead of the harmonic one,is shooting excellent results,which are interesting to the ear,and simply creating something new,enjoyful.Another thing no one did before Cage until this work,is putting inside the music Zen Buddhism and Hinduism influences-the music remindes us of these eastern culture very well-and only for the best.The result is amazing,feeding us with wonder and excitement.
The work may also remind you modern-like dance tythms,and it is obvious,fore Cage has worked during that period as the director for the Merce Cunningham ballet(The works he had written for the Cunnigham ballet are some of his best).
The percussion effects produced by the prepared piano are wonderful,,and unbelivable,hearing a whole percussion orchestra,and sometimes you may want to shake your hooks with these maccabre effects.
A classical John Cage work from his earlier years,worth of everything in order to hear how wonderful and interesting and new it sounds,even until today.
The performance here by Boris Berman is excellent and quite assartive-I like it very much.He truly understands The music of Cage,though sometimes I feel he lack the excitement of these works.All by all,still an excellent performance,and a very interesting conrtol over the preapred piano.

Boris Berman, the supernal virtuoso who has made the nearly impossibly difficult Scriabin sonatas come alive for me, has approached this contemporary American classic with the exact right blend of technical skill and heartfelt feeling. The preparation of the piano is exactly right...nearly completely identical to the preparation of the piano on the Retrospective Concert lp's, which I feel should be taken as the guide to the best interpretation of this masterwork. Of course, with Cage's later work the variability was more desired, but in his pre-indeterminate works I feel Cage should be approached with a more traditional interpretative concept. Berman has put together the best elements for one of the best versions yet. And as an added bonus the budget price (as with all Naxos recordings) tips the scale and makes this the one to get!

I arrived at this cd coming from the angle of electronic (dance) music. I can stand quite a bit of experiment, and I like music that sounds like machines. Where the music on this cd is not so machine like, it does have the same clinical, at times nearly desolate feel. The way the composer creates that feeling is rather unique i'd say. The feeling reminds me of the electronic music by the likes of frank bretschneider and some other mille-plateaux artists, even though the means of performance are rather different. It's a feeling that not everyone likes. And it's a feeling for special occasions. I enjoy this cd most on traintrips very early in the morning. Should say that I can hardly ever listen the cd untill the end. That's just too much. But I have experienced some of those magical listening moments when listening to this cd.

So, it may not be for everyone, it may not be for anytime, but I do recommend trying it.

John Cage was obviously both a musical visionary and renegade. Most of his key musical ideas and philosophy completely challenged and even shatttered three centuries of musical development. The idea of literally destroying a piano would have seemed blasphemous to the great classical composers, however Cage realised that music need not be so strict and constricting. The prepared piano was a simple but groundbreaking idea in its time, however today this music feels pointless and the listener is left feeling detached and uninspired. This release is probably best listened to for analytical purposes only.

I bough this CD of music for "prepared piano" some time ago. On first hearing, I liked it. But now I think that the composer is presenting all the different possible sounds that can be made with a "prepared piano" as a musical composition, without attaching any melody to them. Here in Chile, the country I am from, there is a thing called "palo de agua", that is sold on craftmen markets. It is made of the stem of a cactus which is filled with something (I think they fill it with sand). When you shake the "palo de agua", it makes a sound. Shake it in a different way, and a different sound will come out of it. Initially, the sound, which is so different from that of any other "musical instrument", comes across as fresh and innovative. After a week, the palo de agua is only a curiosity sitting in the corner of your living room. No Chilean that I know of considers the palo de agua as a musical instrument or the sounds that come out of it as music. When I listen to this CD, I can't help thinking that it is nothing but "palo de agua" music.