Classical Music

Classical Music

John Cage’s occupation with the sound possibilities of the prepared piano became the dominant tonal feature of his music after he moved to New York in 1942, and for many years it remained his preferred form of expression. Works for Piano and Prepared Piano, Vol. II, is an exquisite collection of dynamic pieces that John Cage wrote before he developed an interest in the I Ching, the ancient Chinese “book of changes,” or in atonality.

With a score derived from star maps - the "Atlas Australis", a book of maps of stars as they can be seen from Australia - and the "I Ching" (64-choice Old-Chinese chance manual) "Etudes Australes" is a quintessentially Cageian work. Grete Sultan is an active recitalist who has performed music both classic and contemporary around the world. "When I wrote the 'Sonatas and Interludes', it was with Maro Amian in mind", Cage said. "David Tudor was in my mind when I wrote the 'Music of Changes'. Without Grete Sultan in mind, her quiet, indomitable strength, her devotion to the piano (which I also love), her discipline, her determination to transform music from the paper into life, I would not have embarked on this project. Now of course I am delighted that I did." Grete Sultan: piano.

"What I'm interested in is a compositional process and a sounding music that are one and the same thing"(Steve Reich, 1968). Minimal music, which numbers Steve Reich among its founders and as one of its most significant representatives, existed for hardly more than ten years. The Ensemble Avantgarde presents a wonderful survey of Reich's minimal music-compositions. The conceptional concentration in the musical work on the structurally simple means of its creation is seen especially in Reich's "Pendulum Music", which is presented here in three different versions. Strict minimal music ended with "Phase Patterns" of 1970. The Ensemble Avantgarde is an association of musicians in Leipzig who are dedicated to the performance of 20th-century music. Since its founding in 1989, the ensemble has worked with a variable membership under the artistic and organizational direction of Steffen Schleiermacher. Concert tours have taken the group through many European countries, East Asia, and South America. Numerous radio productions and CDs document the work of the ensemble. They have been specially recognized through a grant from the Ernst von Siemens Foundation and the Schneider-Schott Prize given by the city of Mainz.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The significance of the seven pieces brought together here is that they both generate a striking panorama of the intelligence of the material presented, over a period of four years, from 1939 to 1943, by the composer whom the critic Fred Goldbeck described as "the greatest Giraudouxian of our age", and clarify in an extraordinarily oblique manner the prehistory of this "automation" of the creative act, towards which one can detect the perpetual temptation in the young Cage.

20TH CENTURY MUSIC FOR FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA

Classical Music

Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 2 / Little Suite / Symphonic Vari

Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 3 / Paganini Variations

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music