John Cage: Music for Prepared Piano, Vol. 2

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
John Cage abdicated his role as composer around 1950 to become a bystander as random sounds went by. Before that, he wrote some of the most fascinating music produced in America. Some of Cage's best early music was written for percussion ensembles. When the limited space at a dance performance forced him to become an inventor, he thought up a one-man percussion ensemble: the "prepared piano," a standard piano altered by clamping objects onto the strings. The music on this disc covers a wide range of moods and temperament, from the ghostly "Daughters of the Lonesome Isle" to the aggressive "And the Earth Shall Bear Again." Most of the pieces are imaginative enough to stand up to repeated listening. Boris Berman, a Russian-born pianist who now runs Yale's piano department, is better known for playing music like Scriabin and Prokofiev. But he seems completely in command of this radical idiom, with only a bit of rushing here and there keeping him from perfection. With its vivid sound and fascinating repertoire, this disc is another notable Naxos bargain. --Leslie Gerber

John Cage: Music for Prepared Piano, Vol. 2, Music, John Cage, Boris Berman, Chamber Music & Recitals, Character/Single-Movement/Miscellaneous Work for Keyboard, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Keyboard, Musical Theater
John Cage: Music for Prepared Piano, Vol. 2
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Thank You, Naxos!
  • Uncaged
  • Acceptable performances of minor Cage
  • Berman's Cage
 John Cage: Music for Prepared Piano, Vol. 2

Manufacturer: Naxos American
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:
  1. Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
  2. John Cage: In a Landscape
  3. Insomnia
  4. Silence: Lectures and Writings
  5. John Cage: Early Piano Music

ASIN: B00005A8A6
Release Date: 2001-03-20

Tracks:

  1. The Perilous Night: No.1
  2. The Perilous Night: No.2
  3. The Perilous Night: No.3
  4. The Perilous Night: No.4
  5. The Perilous Night: No.5
  6. The Perilous Night: No.6
  7. Tossed As It Is Untroubled
  8. Daughters Of The Lonesome Isle
  9. Roots Of An Unfocus
  10. Primitive
  11. Mysterious Adventure
  12. And The Earth Shall Bear Again
  13. The Unavailable Memory Of
  14. Music For Marcel Duchamp
  15. Totem Ancestor
  16. A Room
  17. Prld For Meditation

Amazon.com

John Cage abdicated his role as composer around 1950 to become a bystander as random sounds went by. Before that, he wrote some of the most fascinating music produced in America. Some of Cage's best early music was written for percussion ensembles. When the limited space at a dance performance forced him to become an inventor, he thought up a one-man percussion ensemble: the "prepared piano," a standard piano altered by clamping objects onto the strings. The music on this disc covers a wide range of moods and temperament, from the ghostly "Daughters of the Lonesome Isle" to the aggressive "And the Earth Shall Bear Again." Most of the pieces are imaginative enough to stand up to repeated listening. Boris Berman, a Russian-born pianist who now runs Yale's piano department, is better known for playing music like Scriabin and Prokofiev. But he seems completely in command of this radical idiom, with only a bit of rushing here and there keeping him from perfection. With its vivid sound and fascinating repertoire, this disc is another notable Naxos bargain. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Thank You, Naxos!.......2006-01-20

The term "John Cage" seems to haunt my mind as long as I live. He certainly was one of the most controversial American composers during his days; he was the key figure to introduce "chance" and the "prepared piano" - by placing different small objects on the strings, the instrument produces various timbre, thus creating sort of a one-man percussion ensemble!

"4:33" is the first piece I knew by Cage, and I did listen to bits and pieces from radios and such, but I didn't have a single CD to own and have myself fully introduced to Cage's radical music. Plus, all this avant-garde albums are incredibly hard to find in high-profile Classical labels including Deustche Grammophon and Sony.

That's when I relied on Naxos, which currently holds one of the largest arrays of Classical music. And sure enough, I immediately bought what I needed; the first two Cage CDs released, performed by Russian pianist Boris Berman - the first one featuring "Sonatas and Interludes" for prepared piano, and this album. At a budget price, there is only little risk out of my wallet. So thank you, Naxos! Now I can listen to Cage's music wherever I can.

Of the two albums, I like this one better, because it features (except for the brief cycle "The Perilous Night") different separate pieces, each with distinct "preparations", moods, and colors the instrument can produce with all those objects inside. My favorite are "Tossed as it is Untroubled" and "Music for Marcel Duchamp", both with a foreign folk-like quality. I also like the extravagant "Mysterious Adventure" and the percussive "Primitive". Another particularly bizarre work is "Root of an Unfocus". There are some relatively calm pieces too, including "The Unavailable Memory of", "A Room", and "Prelude for Meditation".

A great CD for other people new with John Cage's music, but a good CD for Cage fans and experts too.

5 out of 5 stars Uncaged.......2004-06-12

Try this album, patiently listening all the way through, and I think you will want immediately to play it again. Cranky music, perhaps, but absolutely fascinating. Cage was a grand experimenter, and here he even reconstructs a piano to achieve just the exact sonorities he wants, brilliantly played by Boris Berman. Haunting music, like nothing heard before. Bob Finley

3 out of 5 stars Acceptable performances of minor Cage.......2003-12-18

Following up on his recording of the complete Sonatas and Interludes, Boris Berman's second Cage disc for Naxos takes on a miscellany of music for prepared piano that gives a good overview of the composer's music for dance of the 1940s. The overall tone of the music is generally rhythmic and percussive rather than melodic; hence Cage's placing of objects on the piano strings to completely change the piano sound.

This disc contains three larger works and nine shorter ones. The Perilous Night is in six movements--the other works here are all in one movement--and explores a variety of sounds, rhythms and timbres. Daughters of the Lonesome Isle alternates between ghostly sound and vigorous dancelike rhythms, while Mysterious Adventure is a wide-ranging--if discursive--eight minute fantasy.

The shorter works tend even more towards vigorously rhythmic writing: Primitive, Totem Ancestor and And the Earth Shall Bear Again are near-orgiastic dances (I particularly like how, in the last of these pieces, Cage prepares the bass notes of the piano but leaves the treble untouched). In contrast, The Unavailable Memory of, Prelude for Meditation and Music for Marcel Duchamp are slow, meditative works, often monophonic. The rhythmic vagaries of Tossed as it is Untroubled, Root of an Unfocus and A Room add a little variety to the music, and probably come as close as any of these pieces to Cage's later style.

This is an interesting disc, and provides a strong foretaste of Minimalism, though an hour of largely similar works is a little much to take in one sitting. Berman's performances are acceptable, but nothing more: most of the works here have received superior readings on rival recordings by pianists such as Karis, Tan, Drury and Schleiermacher. Recommended to those on a budget, or for whom the collection is attractive.

4 out of 5 stars Berman's Cage.......2001-05-08

My only complain comes from his choice of tempo for a piece such as "Music For Marcel Duchamp", which is the fastest i've ever heard (at 5'06 aprox)and lacks the mesmeric atmosphere that got me hooked on it the first time I listened to it.
Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Early beautiful meditative Cage
 Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1

Manufacturer: MD&G Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Cage, JohnCage, John | ( C ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
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Similar Items:
  1. John Cage - Complete Piano Music, Vol. 3 - "Music Of Changes" / Schleiermacher
  2. John Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 8 (Hommage à Satie)
  3. John Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 2
  4. John Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 7
  5. John Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 5 (Two Pianos)

ASIN: B0000021HL
Release Date: 1997-10-21

Tracks:

  1. Bucchanale
  2. Totem Ancestor
  3. And The Earth Shall Bear Again
  4. Primative
  5. I.
  6. II.
  7. Our Spring Will Come
  8. A Room
  9. Tossed As It Is Untroubled
  10. I.
  11. II.
  12. III.
  13. IV.
  14. V.
  15. VI.
  16. Root Of An Unfocus

Tracks:

  1. The Unavailable Memory Of
  2. Spontaneous Earth
  3. Triple Paced
  4. I.
  5. II.
  6. III.
  7. Prelude For Meditation
  8. Mysterious Adventure
  9. Daughters Of The Lonesome Isle
  10. Music For Marcel Duchamp
  11. I.
  12. II.

Tracks:

  1. Sonata I.
  2. Sonata II.
  3. Sonata III.
  4. Sonata IV.
  5. Interlude I.
  6. Sonata V.
  7. Sonata VI.
  8. Sonata VII.
  9. Sonata VIII.
  10. Interlude II.
  11. Interlude III.
  12. Sonata IX.
  13. Sonata X.
  14. Sonata XI.
  15. Sonata XII.
  16. Interlude IV.
  17. Sonata XIII.
  18. Sonata XIV.
  19. Sonata XV.
  20. Sonata XVI.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Early beautiful meditative Cage.......2005-01-26

You will not be disappointed or dismissive of this early music, primarily for prepared piano, an instrument that has sort of fallen out of existence. I know of no vigorous repertoire that had followed Cage's innovations. The idea for placing nuts and bolts, woodscrews and erasers between the piano's internal strings was from Henry Cowell, a piano timbral innovator in his own right. Cage developed the instrument as an accompaniment to the performances of Merce Cunningham dance in the early Forties, and the idea simple took off toward theatre,toward performance art and associative images, Lincoln Kirstein also commissioned works from Cage. Well here you get the full weight of this repertoire, and my favorite is "Perilous Night", it reveals the "subjectivity" residing in Cage despite his numerous attempts to circumvent his persona, Well it comes through here although you always sense that timbre and rhythm remain the primary focus of this early music.Also the un=prepared works, single exposed threadbare lines are what interested early Cage .The timbral differences of the piano preparation are interesting in and of itself and seem to engage concept and image;as "prelude and meditation",a minimal work of three four lines, only a few strings are prepared, or the "Music for Marcel Duchamp" where only the middle register of the piano is utilized with a single melody written in alto clef. This work has more a lyric interest yet having a deeply sombre feel to it.

The more expansive "Sonatas and Interludes" are all here, and there are now dozens of recordings,(like a standard within the repertoire,as Chopin's "preludes") and some play them fast(Joshua Pierce) others slow. I prefer the John Tilbury, Decca recording (now unavailable) but here as well the renderings/readings are quite engaging. The negative feature to all this music is that the timbre seems to never suggest anything more than what it is, it is like anything remains beautiful. Perhaps that is why there has not been a "thousand flowers" blooming from this instrument. It has astatic quality to it,one-dimensional. Cage you feel knew this and did introduce as much variety, distributions of densities, and rhythms, textures, and the structural plan as well adheres to maintaining an agenda for variety. The "Sonatas" here being the primary focus, the exposition, and the "Interludes" the digression relief from the gestural whole.
Works For Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. 4
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		Works For Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. 4

    Manufacturer: Wergo
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    Cage, JohnCage, John | ( C ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
    Character PiecesCharacter Pieces | Short Forms | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
    Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
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    ASIN: B000024SLC
    Release Date: 1996-10-22

    Tracks:

    1. Five Songs For Contralto
    2. Metamorphosis
    3. Bacchanale
    4. A Valentine Out Of Season
    5. Tossed As It Is Untroubled
    6. Root Of An Unfocues
    7. Music Walk - Joshua Pierce/Adria Firestone/Joseph Kubera/Myra Melford/Fumiko Miyanoo
    8. Jazz Study
    9. Music Walk - Joshua Pierce/Adria Firestone/Borah Bergman/Adria Firestone/Joseph Kubera/Myra Melford
    10. Experiences: I. Duo For Two Pnos - Joshua Pierce/Adria Firestone/Dorothy Jonas
    11. Experiences: II. Solo for voice - Adria Firestone
    John Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 5 (Two Pianos)
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • A strong collection of Cage's two-piano music
    		 John Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 5 (Two Pianos)

    Manufacturer: MD&G Records
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

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    Character PiecesCharacter Pieces | Short Forms | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
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    Similar Items:
    1. Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1

    ASIN: B00004UAIK
    Release Date: 2000-08-22

    Tracks:

    1. A Book Of Music (For Robert Fizdale And Arthur Gold): Part One
    2. A Book Of Music (For Robert Fizdale And Arthur Gold): Part Two
    3. Experience 1
    4. Music For Two

    Tracks:

    1. Two^2
    2. Three Dances: I
    3. Three Dances: II
    4. Three Dances: III

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars A strong collection of Cage's two-piano music.......2003-11-30

    This disc, containing Cage's complete music for two pianos, is roughly equally split between music for prepared piano from the 1940s and music for unprepared piano from the 1980s. It gives a good summary of two of Cage's major periods, in fine performances from Steffen Schleiermacher and Josef Christof.

    A Book of Music was written for the virtuoso Gold and Fitzdale piano duo. This is in two parts, both of which are essentially a sequence of fairly primitivist dance pieces for two prepared pianos. This is entertaining music, though perhaps 35 minutes is a little long. Stronger, and indeed one of the best of Cage's 1940s works, are the Three Dances. Written for choreography, this triptych contains some of Cage's most effective prepared piano writing. The first dance is fast, the second mostly slow, and the third a ferocious, rumbustuous toccata with a Rite of Spring-like energy. This is exhilarating music, and Christof and Schleiermacher sound like they're having a great time playing it. The disc rounds off the 1940s with a short, fragmentary write-note Satie homage, Experiences I.

    The first of the two 1980s works is Music for Two. This is simply the two piano parts from Cage's Music for ... series. The material consists of brief phrases, played normally, and long-held single tones, played by bowing the piano strings. The overall effect is slow and hypnotic. In contrast, Two^2 is explicitly structured. It consists of 36 brief pieces in the Japanese renga form (5-7-5-7-7), each a little over a minute long, played with the sustaining pedals constantly depressed so as to create a wash of harmony that doesn't entirely fade out in between the pieces. At 46 minutes, this is maybe a little too long, but it's still a strong piece.

    This disc can certainly be recommended to anyone attracted by the program. The music is good, the playing excellent and MDG's recording quality as exceptional as ever.
    Fifty Years of Hungaroton: Pianists
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      		Fifty Years of Hungaroton: Pianists

      Manufacturer: Hungaroton
      ProductGroup: Music
      Binding: Audio CD

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      ASIN: B000060P8B
      Release Date: 2002-02-26

      Tracks:

      1. Allegretto - Imre Ungar
      2. Prelude And Fugue In C Sharp Major, BWV 848 (Das Wohltemperierte Klavier I, No.3) - Tatyana Nikolayeva
      3. Annees De Pelerinage, Troisieme Annee, S.163:4: Les Jeux D'eaux A La Villa D'Este - Gyorgy Cziffra
      4. III. Allegro Vivace - Gyorgy Sebok
      5. Toccata In D Minor, Op.11 - Lazar Berman
      6. III. Tuileries - Endre Petri
      7. Mazurka In B Flat Major, Op.7 No.1 BI 61:1 - Gyorgy Ferenczy
      8. General Lavine - Excentric - Peter Solymos
      9. An Evening In Transylvania - Peter Frankl
      10. 18. Magyar Rapszodia - Tibor Wehner
      11. II. Allegretto - Lajos Hernadi
      12. Schlummerlied - Erno Szegedi
      13. I. Allegro - Gabor Gabos
      14. III. Alla Turca: Allegretto - Agnes Katona
      15. Allegro Vivace (Shepherd's Dance) - Ditta Bartok-Pasztory
      16. Capriccio In F Minor - Katalin Nemes
      17. Etude In E Major, Op.10 No.3, BI 74 - Lajos Kentner
      18. From The Island Of Bali - Lorant Szucs

      Tracks:

      1. Impromptu In F Minor, Op.post.142 No.1, D.935:1 - Annie Fischer
      2. No.1. Ausserst Bewegt - Aniko Szegedi
      3. Allegro - Sandor Falvai
      4. Bagatelle In E Flat Major, Op.126 No.6 - Mihaly Bacher
      5. Etude In A Flat Major, Op.25 No.1, BI 104 - Csilla Szabo
      6. 2 Csardas, S.225:1 - Gabriella Torma
      7. La Plus Que Lente - Erzsebet Tusa
      8. Oiseaux Tristes - Erika Lux
      9. Two Minuets - Kornel Zempleni
      10. III. Finale: Presto - Joseph Haydn
      11. I. Allegro Non Troppo, Ma Energico - Istvan Antal
      12. Allegro - Andras Schiff
      13. Traumes Wirren - Imre Rohmann
      14. Valse Oubliee No.1, S.215:1 - Gyula Kiss
      15. Arabesk In C Major, Op.18 - Ferenc Rados

      Tracks:

      1. Cloches A Travers Les Feuilles - Zoltan Kocsis
      2. Danse - Zoltan Kocsis
      3. La Danza - Tarantella Napoletana - Jeno Jando
      4. Ondine - Dezso Ranki
      5. Menuet Sur Le Nom D'Haydn - Dezso Ranki
      6. Sonatas And Interludes No.5 - Klara Kormendi
      7. La Leggierezza - Karoly Mocsari
      8. III. The Viennese Musical Clock - Adam Fellegi
      9. III. Scherzo. Allegro Vivace - Malcolm Bilson
      10. Cavatine, Op.19 No.1 - Ilona Prunyi
      11. Ballade Aus Dem Fliegenden Hollander, S.441 - Hegedus Endre
      12. Ronde Of Marosszek & Transylvanian Barndance - Istvan Kassai
      13. Winterreigen, Op.13 No.7: Um Mitternacht - Laszlo Baranyai
      14. Berceuse In E Major, Op.105 - Monika Egri
      John Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 10
      Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
      • Unusual Cage, but interesting
      		 John Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 10
      John Cage , and Steffen Schleiermacher
      Manufacturer: MD&G Records
      ProductGroup: Music
      Binding: Audio CD

      Chamber MusicChamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
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      GeneralGeneral | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
      ASIN: B00006IWUW
      Release Date: 2002-11-26

      Tracks:

      1. Opening Dance
      2. Furniture Music Etcetera
      3. I.
      4. II.
      5. III.
      6. IV.
      7. V.
      8. I.
      9. II.
      10. Four3

      Customer Reviews:

      3 out of 5 stars Unusual Cage, but interesting.......2003-11-30

      Steffen Schleiermacher's series of John Cage's piano works was originally scheduled to reach an end after volume nine. However, while Schleiermacher was recording this series, he received word of other, previously undiscovered Cage pieces, and decided to record them. This disc contains them, plus some miscellaneous fill-up pieces, thus entirely justifying its subtitle, 'Etcetera'.

      The disc starts off with a brief Opening Dance, an early-1940s dance piece. This is in a similar style to his Sonatas and Interludes, though it is for piano rather than prepared piano. Following this is a second previously unknown work, Furniture Music Etcetera, from 1980. This work is barely more than a sketch for realisation by the performer: it consists of instructions on when to play fragments of Satie and when to play fragments of Cage. Schleiermacher's reconstruction, thus, is necessarily speculative, but it entertains for its 20 minute duration.

      Schleiermacher continues with the Suite for Toy Piano, from 1948. He had previously recorded the version for piano, but for this disc he bought a toy piano and recorded on it. This is a minor work, almost inevitably, but one recorded several times: I found Margaret Leng Tan's ECM recording marginally preferable.

      Tan has also recorded the music for 'Works of Calder', a film about the mobiles of Alexander Calder. Her rendition scores over Schleiermacher in that she also includes the percussion music and narration from Burgess Meredith that appeared in the film itself. (Cage had intended to create the entire soundtrack with percussion and electronics, but ran out of time and had to supply 15 minutes of prepared piano music instead.) The music isn't Cage at its best, and I found little to separate Tan and Schleiermacher's readings in terms of desirability.

      Lastly, Four^3, a work for the rather extraordinary combination of piano, offstage piano, violin (or oscillator) and twelve rainsticks. This is one of Cage's late number pieces, and thus the part for each performer indicates single notes or brief phrases, and a range of times between which the performer may start and stop playing them (in the case of the violinist, (s)he plays only one single tone for the whole piece). This is a more effective work than might be expected, the rainsticks providing an aural backdrop against which brief fragmentary melodies appear in the two pianos, with the high pianissimo violin tone flickering in and out of the texture.

      This is a rather arbitrary selection of works, but Cage admirers will want to hear Four^3 (there is a rival recording on Mode, though I have not heard it) and Furniture Music Etcetera.
      John Cage: Works for Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. 2 (1944-1958) - Mysterious Adventure / TV Koeln / Daughters of the Lonesome Pine / Dream / The Perilous Night / Nocturne / Three Dances - Joshua Pierce, Piano
      Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
      • My introduction to John Cage
      • Great performance, but not a very good recording
      		 John Cage: Works for Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. 2 (1944-1958) - Mysterious Adventure / TV Koeln / Daughters of the Lonesome Pine / Dream / The Perilous Night / Nocturne / Three Dances - Joshua Pierce, Piano

      Manufacturer: Wergo
      ProductGroup: Music
      Binding: Audio CD

      Cage, JohnCage, John | ( C ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
      Character PiecesCharacter Pieces | Short Forms | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Keyboard | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
      PianoPiano | Keyboard | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
      GeneralGeneral | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
      ClassicalClassical | Imports | Stores | Music
      ASIN: B000025R85
      Release Date: 1993-01-27

      Tracks:

      1. Mysterious Adventure
      2. TV Koeln
      3. Daughters Of The Lonesome Isle
      4. Dream/The Perilous Night
      5. #1
      6. #2
      7. #3
      8. #4
      9. #5
      10. #6
      11. Nocturne/Three Dances
      12. #1
      13. #2
      14. #3

      Customer Reviews:

      4 out of 5 stars My introduction to John Cage.......2007-05-20

      As a fan of progressive rock, I take great enjoyment from exploring a wide variety of experimental music and found my introduction to John Cage to be especially rewarding. Cage was an early composer of what is referred to by musicologists as aleatoric music, which introduces the element of chance into a given composition. Although Cage would flip coins to determine a particular sequence (a binary outcome seems an odd choice), he eventually went so far as to formally model probability in his compositions using more sophisticated approaches including a computer program. I am curious though, as to how he incorporated stochasticity into this computer model, e.g. whim of the performer. It is worth noting however, that the whim of the performer was taken into account without statistical modeling by providing performers with graphics on paper and allowing them to interpret the images and subsequently determine pitch, duration etc.

      At any rate, the works generated from 1946-48 are widely seen as Cage's greatest for prepared piano and The Perilous Night (1944) is considered as one of his greatest compositions for prepared piano. Based on what I have read, prepared piano involves placing screws, bolts, strips of rubber, and other objects between the strings of the piano to change the character of the instrument. There are even times when the outside of the piano is played! The resulting sound is extremely percussive and the notes are somewhat damped (they are not very vibrant).

      The musicians on this recording (made between 1983 and 1987) include Joshua Pierce (piano/prepared piano); Dorothy Jonas (piano/prepared piano); and Frank Almond (violin). The musicians are all extremely highly trained and are well respected classical performers. Their performances on this recording are breathtaking to say the least.

      Many of the pieces on this compilation were composed during the 1944-1948 timeframe, although there is one piece from 1958 (TV Koeln). In large part, the prepared piano compositions are extremely percussive and are almost oriental sounding (somewhat reminiscent of a Balinese gamelan). Melody is absent from this music and the compositions are comprised of noise, which can be either pitched or unpitched, and arranged rhythmically. The one piece that stands out from this approach is Dream (1948), which is the only non-prepared piano piece on the album and consists primarily of a single (and very odd sounding) melody played with the piano soft pedal depressed the whole time, allowing each note to blend in with adjacent notes. The effect is very...well...dreamy.

      Well, there you have it. This is very challenging music for serious listeners and I personally found the experience extremely rewarding. I am now on a mission to explore other prepared piano works from the period explored on this album along with his other compositions.

      4 out of 5 stars Great performance, but not a very good recording.......1999-08-01

      The performances on this disc are very well executed. All of the preparations seem to be well done. Unfortunately, the quality of the actual recording is slightly sub-par. The prepared piano sounds are dry and almost toneless. This is most likely due to a poor recording job. The works that don't involve the prepared piano (TV Koeln and Dream) turned out flawlessly. I would still recomend this recording if for nothing else than the only recording of "Mysterious Adventure" which, although drier than intended, is performed with an exquisite touch.

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