Download John Cage Sonatas and Interludes

John Cage
Sonatas and Interludes
WER 67822 | CD
price code:
| barcode: 4010228678222
release date: February 2013
Composed by John Cage between 1946 and 1948, “Sonatas and Interludes” for prepared piano is
one of the most famous works of the composer and one of the works most admired by listeners
and performers alike, holding a key position in his catalogue of works.
Several years earlier, Cage had already developed the technique of piano preparation to explore
the possibilities of sound manipulation: Preparation tables preceding each of his pieces indicate
which materials (e.g. screws, bolts, rubber, felt or plastic elements) have to be used and where
they have to be placed between the piano strings. Each object, its size, strength, fixing method
and position changes the pitch, volume, timbre and duration of the original piano sound.
In comparison with Cage’s earlier pieces, the preparation tables for the “Sonatas and Interludes”
are comprehensive and accurate. The preparation, which takes the pianist from two and a half to
three hours, encompasses more than half of all the strings of the piano. At first, Cage thus tried
to achieve a specified sound image – an ideal which he later modified: “When I first placed
objects between piano strings, it was with the desire to possess sounds (to be able to repeat
them). But, as the music left my home and went from piano to piano and from pianist to pianist,
it became clear that not only are two pianists essentially different from one another, but two
pianos are not the same either. […] all led me to the enjoyment of things as they come, as they
happen, rather than as they are possessed or kept or forced to be.”
Content:
Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano
Interpreter:
Antonis Anissegos: piano
Antonis Anissegos (© Jürgen Grözinger)
WERGO / SCHOTT MUSIC & MEDIA GmbH · Weihergarten 5 · 55116 Mainz · Germany