Customer Reviews

Margaret Leng Tan: Sonic Encounters: The New Piano - Works of John Cage / Alan Hovhaness / George Crumb / Somei Satoh / Ge Gan-Ru

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Two Cage works for prepared piano, George Crumb, Alan Hovhaness and Somei Satoh. Besides all being pieces that are less frequently recorded, the four composers provide a fine overview of experimental piano techniques, and Tan's playing is, of course, excellent. All in all, a fine collection of 20th century classical piano, and a good introduction to any of the composers.

Margaret Leng Tan plays prepared piano works from John Cage (the father of the prepared piano), Alan Hovhaness, George Crumb, Somei Satoh, & Ge Gan-Ru with this highly original & well recorded CD. The prepared piano was created by John Cage in the 1940's to save space & cost from hiring several percussion musicians while at the same time creating new sounds with inserted items or re-tuning the piano. In the later 20th century, several composers took up the practice to create certain tonalities or soundscapes with the prepared piano. In this recording Alan Hovhaness & George Crumb are west meeting east, while Somei Satoh & Ge Gan-Ru are east meeting west, all creating a multi-cultural modern classical expression not to be missed.