John Cage: The Works for Violin, Vol. 4

Track Listings

1. Six Melodies (1950)ÊÊÊ(2:40, 1:34, 2:11, 2:43, 1:31, 1:56) for violin & keyboard
2. Nocturne (1947)ÊÊÊ(3:30) for violin & piano
3. Eight Whiskus (1985)ÊÊÊ(1:00, 00:45, 00:46, 00:32, 00:41, 00:57, 00:52, 00:46)
4. Two6 (1992)ÊÊÊ(19:56) for violin & piano
5. One10 (1992)ÊÊÊ(24:36) for violin

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
John Cage especially requested that Irvine Arditti team with Stephen Drury, one of Cage's favorite pianists, for these works believing that they would be the "perfect" interpreters. Mode celebrates our 100th release with this special disc. Volume 4 of Irvine Arditti's masterful traversal of the complete works for violin by Cage combines two of his beautiful early pieces for violin and piano along with Two6, also for violin and piano; and two later works for violin solo. An overlooked gem in Cage's early style, the Nocturne receives a rare CD recording here. The beguiling 6 Melodies is an insistently simple work in which the violin must play (as in much of Cage's music for violin) without vibrato. Its exotic quality is as hypnotic as an Indian raga. Together, these two works offer a wonderful, appealing introduction for the uninitiated to Cage's music.

John Cage: The Works for Violin, Vol. 4, Music, John Cage, Stephen Drury, Irvine Arditti, Chamber, Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Single String Instrument with Keyboard/Continuo, Violin Solo, Violin with Keyboard

Average customer rating: A good mix of early and late Cage

John Cage: The Works for Violin, Vol. 4 Manufacturer: Mode ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Cage, John | ( C ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music Violin | Strings | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music Similar Items: Cage: Variations I, II, And III Cage: The Works for Violin, Vol. 3 ASIN: B00005B1DJ Release Date: 2001-06-12

Tracks:

1. Six Melodies (1950)2:40, 1:34, 2:11, 2:43, 1:31, 1:56) for violin & keyboard
2. Nocturne (1947)3:30) for violin & piano
3. Eight Whiskus (1985)1:00, 00:45, 00:46, 00:32, 00:41, 00:57, 00:52, 00:46)
4. Two6 (1992)19:56) for violin & piano
5. One10 (1992)24:36) for violin

Album Description

Customer Reviews:

A good mix of early and late Cage.......2003-11-15

The disc starts off with Six Melodies--effectively out-takes from Cage's fine early string quartet. Without being masterpieces, they flow along nicely in a faux-naif modal melancholy very much akin to that of the quartet. The earlier Nocturne is somewhat more diverse in style, if clearly by the same composer. Also very much in the same modal language are the Eight Whiskus, pleasant miniatures for solo violin dating from the mid-1980s.

Rather more lengthy are the two 'number pieces', Two^6 and One^10. Two^6 features brief microtonal melodies in the violin playing against distorted Satie quotations on the piano, while One^10 largely involves single held notes on the solo violin, interspersed with silence. Neither is amongst the most accessible of Cage's later works, with One^10 in particular being rather an acquired taste--but there is plenty to enjoy in them once the barriers have been broken.

The performances are good, though Irvine Arditti's violin-playing might be regarded as too overwrought by some. Well worth considering, though for those new to the composer this is not the place to start a Cage collection.

Average customer rating: 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 Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music General | 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:

Unusual Cage, but interesting.......2003-11-30

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.

Track Listings:

1. John Ireland: Piano Concerto; Mai-Dun; Legend
2. Kancheli: Morning Prayers/Abii Ne Videdrem/Evening Prayers
3. Kenneth Mckellar's Book of Hymns [Import]
4. Lost & Found-Treasures of the Heifetz Legacy
5. Lyapunov: Piano Concerto No. 2
6. Melodies for Meditation
7. Music of Latin America
8. New Years Concert 1987 [Live]
9. On Photography
10. On Wings of Jewish Song

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Vimana [Import]

Clerambault: Suite du premier ton; Suite du deuxième ton

Black Foliage Animation Music (+1 Bonus

The Last Farewell

Alternative Album V.1 [Import]

Bring It On: The Best Of [Import]

Baby (1983 Original Broadway Cast) [Cast Recording]

Beethoven: Overtures and Incidental Music

Amps II Eleven [Explicit Lyrics]

Bernstein: Chichester Psalms; Copland: In the Beginning; Barber: Agnus Dei

Autumn in Paris [Import]

20 Sencillos Nortenos

4 Super Grupos: 16 Super Baladas

Haiti

Best of The Blues Brothers