Composer(s): Cage, John
Label: Naxos
Series: American Classics
Genre: Instrumental
Period: 20th Century
Catalogue No: 8.559726
Barcode: 636943972625
Release Date: 10/2013

CAGE, J.: Works for 2 Keyboards, Vol. 1 (Pestova, Meyer)

John Cage’s remarkable magnum opus A Book of Music for two prepared pianos is brought together here with his complete works for toy piano. Intricately structured according to Cage’s ideas about Mozart, A Book of Music is an eloquent and virtuoso mosaic of driving and sometimes frenetic rhythms, the exotic sounds of the ‘prepared’ piano strings transporting the listener into worlds of the strangest imagining. The Suite for Toy Piano is a modest miracle of precise expression and the first ever serious concert music written for this instrument, while Music for Amplified Toy Pianos is composed using chance elements, generating a spacious field of sound filled with surprise.

Tracklist

Cage, John
Pestova, Xenia (prepared piano)
Meyer, Pascal (prepared piano)
1Part I13:04
Pestova, Xenia (prepared piano)
Meyer, Pascal (prepared piano)
2Part II21:21
Pestova, Xenia (prepared piano)
Meyer, Pascal (prepared piano)
Pestova, Xenia (toy piano)
3I. —01:35
Pestova, Xenia (toy piano)
4II. —01:31
Pestova, Xenia (toy piano)
5III. —01:24
Pestova, Xenia (toy piano)
6IV. —01:45
Pestova, Xenia (toy piano)
7V. —00:58
Pestova, Xenia (toy piano)
Pestova, Xenia (toy piano)
Meyer, Pascal (toy piano)
8Music for Amplified Toy Pianos12:42
Pestova, Xenia (toy piano)
Meyer, Pascal (toy piano)

Total Playing Time: 54:20