Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXV, no. 1 (Spring 1999)
Reviews of Recorded Material
Edited by Orly Krasner, Brooklyn College, CUNY
John Cage: The Piano Concertos
John Cage: Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra, Concert for Piano and Orchestra,
Fourteen. David Tudor, piano; Ensemble Modern, Ingo Metzmacher, conductor; Stephen Drury, piano;
Callithumpian Consort of the New England Conservatory, Charles Peltz, conductor. Mode Records,
Mode 57, 1997. One compact disc.
John Cage: The Piano Works 3
John Cage: The Seasons, Cheap Imitation, ASLSP. Stephen Drury, piano. Mode Records, Mode 63,
1998. One compact disc.
The Piano Concertos disc covers a wonderfully wide range of material: three different sound worlds
of Cage's output, all in excellent performances. The fact that the repertoire focuses on Cage's
grievously under-recorded medium-to-large ensemble compositions is an added pleasure. The disc
contains many surprises, beginning with its title (who thinks of Cage as a composer of three piano
concertos?) and a moving on to the realization of its content.
The disc opens with the beautiful sounds of Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra.
A well-rehearsed orchestra plays in tune and with good tone, taking loving care with details. Even the
blend with the solo prepared piano, so problematic with this concerto featuring a muted soloist with
a full symphony orchestra, is carried off with finesse. The exotic compounds of instrumental
sound in the orchestra complement with logic the metal and wood agregates of the stopped notes in the
piano. When the soloist's prepared notes combine with orchestral sounds, the results are simply
magical.
With the problems of dynamic and timbral balance solved, the listener hears, for the first time in
a recording of this work, a real dialogue taking place among the instruments and the soloist. The
shining performance of this pivotal work in Cage's output allows us to hear clearly the
fascinating amalgam that it is. It weaves together several threads of Cage's composition to this
point (1951) and, especially with the increasing sparsity of the third movement, hints of things
to come.
Forteen is an example of the "time bracket" pieces Cage was occupied with at the time of
his death. As in Concert, the instruments play independently from each other, but here
they produce only single pitches one at a time, in "an anarchic society of sound." The piano, which
is sounded by means of bowing with a rosined fishing line, is embedded within the ensemble.
The recording of Concert for Piano on this disc has the additional historical interest of
being David Tudor's last recording at the piano. Tudor also controls an array of electronics in this
1992 live performance with the Ensemble Modern at the "Festival Anarchic Harmonies" in Frankfurt,
Germany.
The solo piano recording covers a similar span of styles. After a long career devoted to techniques
of chance composition, we can forget the effectiveness of Cage's intentional expressiveness.
For example, the opening sectiosn (Winter) of The Seasons are an image of stasis, portrayed with the
implacability of weather itself. This is followed by a portrait of Spring, a picture
of sprouting friskiness and growth.
The Seasons also shows Cage's penchant for taking an idea from one medium and planting it
elsewhere. In this case, the phenomenon of aggregate sounds, derived from his experience with
the prepared piano, is applied to the unprepared instrument. To imitate the multiple sounds
of some prepared notes, certain pitches are always played simultaneously. What at first sounds like a
chord becomes part of a highly colored melodic line.
Stephen Drury's performance of the earlier material is joyous; he combines precise detailing with an
eloquence of melodic gesture in this music where melody is everything. He then forces the realization
in the later music that musical composition made with the intention of personal expression can
be, nonetheless, expressive music. Cheap Imitation provides a combination of these two
ideas; its simplicity requires a mature and thoughtful artistry to bring it to life, and
especially, to sustain interest for its duration. This is the first successful performance of
Cheap Imitation that I have encountered.
Lack of space precludes mentioning all the gifts waiting for the listener on these superb performances
of a marvelous variety of repertoire. Each disc contains over seventy minutes of music and comes
with brief but useful program notes. I should mention as well the good use that
could be made of these discs as demonstration material in instructional situations
--Louis Goldstein
Wake Forest University
Alexander Reinagle: The Philadelphia Sonatas & Two Scottish Variations
Stephen Siek, piano & fortepiano. Titanic, Ti-235, 1998. One compact disc.
Reinagle's piano sontas are some of the most elegant and sophisticated keyboard music composed in
America during the Federalist period. The Philadelphia Sonatas were probably written before 1794, but were
never published. They were hardly known until the autographs were donated to the Library of
Congress in 1904. The works on this disc display Reinagle's gift for lyrical writing and poignant
harmony. His keyboard style ranges from the serenely melodic to the dramatically intense.
Syncopation in the melodic lines and interaction betwen the hands give his piano music rhythmic
enery and interest.
Two instruments are used on this disc. The Philadelphia Sonatas I, II, and III and the sets of
variations are recorded on a modern grand piano. Three works -- The Sonata I, Variations on
"Lee Rigg" and Variations on "Steer Her Up and Had Her Gawn" -- are recorded again on an
1806 Clementi grand. hearing these pieces both ways is very enlightening. Siek's two performances
of Variations on "Steer Her Up and Had Her Gawn" are quite different. Both are tasteful and
clear. The lyrical sound of the modern piano is very appealing, but the best attributes of the
fortepiano are immediately obvious in the second performance. The color of the Clementi is
particularly appropriate for this music, especially the warmth of the middle register in melodic
passages. Its clarity and silvery sound in passagework give rhythmic figures an energy that
is obscured by the richness of the modern instrument. Siek adapts beautifully to the early piano,
although there are some unsteady rhythmic figures (perhaps due to the use of a potentially
temperamental 1806 instrument). He uses agogic accents and pacing in general quite differently
with the two instruments. Most of the playing on this disc is lovely. Crisp ornaments, a
beautifully sensitive dynamic range, and impressive passagework abound. Siek is especially expressive
in the mournful Scotch tune of "Lee Rigg" and the slow movement of Sonata III. The playing captures
the spirit of the music so well that one would like to hear this pianist tackle Haydn's keyboard
music. This disc is extremely well engineered, creating a very live piano prescence. The liner
notes are by Anne McClenny Krauss, who has published extensively on Reinagle. This disc will be
of great interest to those who teach music in the classic period, American music, or keyboard literature.
--Ann Sears
Wheaton College
Updated 4/20/99