John Cage
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Lyrique
$20.99CDAnalekta
Oct 31, 2025AN28840 -
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Cage: Freeman Etudes, Books 3 & 4
Cage: Indeterminacy (in Deutsch)
TROMBONE & PIANO
Cage, Carter, Reich et al: Changes - Contemporary Guitar Music / Tallini
Extase
Cage: Choral Works / Kļava, Latvian Radio Choir
This new album release by the Latvian Radio Choir and conductor Sigvards Kļava on Ondine is devoted to choral works by the legendary American composer and music pioneer John Cage (1912–1992), one of the most leading figures in 20th Century music. John Cage is the dictionary definition of an avant-garde composer. Choral music and John Cage might seem like an odd pairing. And indeed, strictly speaking, Cage wrote only two compositions for chorus, both of which appear on this album: Hymns and Variations (1979) and Four2 (1990). The other works on the album are written for ensembles that are more or less open-ended and which have been interpreted here for choral forces. One reason Cage and choruses did not mix well may have been his notorious hostility to harmony in music. Arnold Schoenberg told Cage that he lacked any feeling for harmony, and that this would be a wall between him and his goal of being a composer. Given all this, it is no wonder that Cage and choruses didn’t tend to mingle together. And so it was not until Cage was 67 years old that he wrote his first work for choral forces: Hymns and Variations.
REVIEWS:
John Cage was barely a choral composer. But by combining the couple of pieces he wrote for chorus with a creative interpretation of the flexible instrumentation of a few other scores, you can arrive at an hour or so of mysterious, wordless music for vocal ensemble. “Hymns and Variations” (1979) is the earliest work on this intimate and luminous new album from the Latvian Radio Choir. Cage subtracts some notes from two hymns by the early American composer William Billings, and extends the duration of some that remain, creating an eerily pure, serene suggestion of 18th-century harmonies.
--The New York Times
That Cage delighted in provoking audiences is undoubtable, but his mischief concealed his seriousness of purpose. He revealed and explored a vast New World of sound which had hitherto been a terra incognita of the mind. But above all, Cage was a tireless proselytizer of the gospel of beauty and created some of the 20th century’s most radically beautiful music. These strands are united here in this breathtaking collection from Ondine of some of the composer’s late choral music performed by the Latvian Radio Choir.
--MusicWeb International
John Cage and choral music might seem strange bedfellows, but there was no corner of the musical landscape that this dedicated breaker of composition rules didn’t want to deconstruct. With its drifting, otherworldly textures, Five, from 1988, could almost have come from the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey, while Four2, astonishingly written for a high school choir, includes a tonal tenor and bass pairing, oozing quite unexpected calm.
[One] can’t but be stunned by the fearless skill of Sigvards Kļava’s choir as they navigate the most jagged, fragmented notes and pitches—the musical equivalent of climbing Mount Everest just with your hands and feet.
--BBC Music Magazine
There are, I think, two possible approaches to this recording. One is simply to listen through it and let the effect of the (very different) pieces on it wash over one, reacting to each in turn. The other is to read the excellent booklet notes by James Pritchett and then listen to the music, following in more or less detail what he explains in them. Either process would work, because the music is intrinsically interesting and frequently very impressive. It must be said as well that the singers sound as though they are enjoying themselves enormously.
--Gramophone
Escape Rites
Lyrique
American Violin Music 1947 to 2000 / Schulte, Oppens
Violinist Rolf Schulte presents a program of great American violin works composed between 1947 and 2000. He is joined in two of them by pianist Ursula Oppens.
Cage: Winter Music - Complete Version for One Pianist
Cage: Music for Three / Přemysl Vojta, Ye Wu, Florence Millet
John Cage (1912-1992) holds his own special place amidst this stylistic pluralism. Although Cage did not specifically write a trio for horn, violin, and piano, his work Music For (1984) can be easily fleshed out in this instrumental lineup. Music For is a bundle of 17 parts that can be randomly associated with one another. Each possible combination represents an entirely valid version of the piece – ranging from a solo performance to piano duet, string quartet, or ensemble with voice. The version for horn trio is called Music For Three.
Cage: Four Walls / Lubimov
"My free life within Four Walls" began with concert performances in 1992 and beyond, followed by a number of stage performances with dancers in Finland and Russia. The collaboration of John Cage with Merce Cunningham began in 1942; and 70 years later, in 2012, knowing my admiration for Cage and my numerous concerts with his music, the outstanding dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov proposed to embody the "Four Walls" in a dance on the stage of his Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York) with the participation of legendary ‘Merce Cunningham Dance Company’, which by this time officially completed its activities. The director Robert Swinston and 8 dancers played with me the performance of the Four Walls / Doubletoss Interludes, and this became a worthy completion of the history of the Four Walls as a theater, while this piece remains a wonderful independent music, anticipating the style of Glass, Pärt and in general, the entire movement of minimalism. In 2015, BAC founded the Cage-Cunningham Foundation, and I received a Fellow Prize of the First-Ever Cage Cunningham Fellowship." (Alexei Lubimov)
Letter(s) to Erik Satie
Cage: Freeman Études, Books 3 & 4
Cage: Music for Merce Cunningham
CAGE, J.: Piano Music, Vol. 2 - The Perilous Night / 3 Dance
Cage: Etudes Australes
SONATA XIII MUSIC FOR MARCEL
Cage: Works for Percussion
Organ Music From The Usa
Jolivet: Suite En Concert Pour Flute Et Percussion / Harriso
Cage: Sonatas And Interludes, Etc / Aleck Karis
The second disc contains a recording of Cage reading his lecture "Composition in Retrospect."
