Subject: Mode Bulletin 3/2002 - msg#00023

NEW THIS MONTH:
Renowned Cage interpreter Margaret Leng Tan performs piano works of John Cage, highlighted by the first recording of Cage?s soundtrack to the film ?Works of Calder?, including the original soundtrack with performances by John Cage himself as well as narration from actor Burgess Meredith. See below for more information.

NEW ON MODE?S WEBSITE:
We are continuing to update the site by adding new pages for each Mode release and new Profiles pages of composers and artists featured on Mode. Of special interest are new dedicated pages for John Cage and Iannis Xenakis which feature photos, biographies and complete discographies of these composers on Mode ? listed by record AND alphabetically by composition for easy reference. Also new on the Website is our new SEARCH ENGINE, accessible from all pages

COMING IN APRIL: The Barton Workshop?s Morton Feldman disc ?Voices and Instruments?, including the first recordings of the early chamber works ?Journey to the End of Night? (1949), and Four Songs to e.e. cummings (1951); as well as Intervals (1961), and Between Categories (1969).

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Brian Brandt
mode records
 

NEW FOR MARCH:
Mode 106
John CAGE: The Works for Piano 4
Margaret Leng Tan, pianos
John Cage, percussion and tape collage*
Burgess Meredith, narrator*

Works for Prepared Piano:

Works of Calder (1949-50) *
including original film soundtrack with Burgess Meredith, narrator; John Cage, percussion & tape collage
First recording

Totem Ancestor (1942)

 Triple Paced (1944)

Music for Marcel Duchamp  (1947)

Works for Piano:

One2  (1989, written for Ms. Leng Tan. First recording of version for 3 pianos)

Ad Lib (1943)

Triple Paced (1944)

Jazz Study (1943)

Until recently at Cage?s publisher in New York, C.F. Peters, there was a box of works which Cage had held off publishing or had simply forgotten about. Among them were the dance pieces, Triple Paced and Ad Lib, Jazz Study and the film score, Works of Calder, all composed between 1942 and 1950. At C.F. Peters? request, Margaret Leng Tan was enlisted to edit these works as part of a new volume of Cage?s piano pieces ? they have been recorded here in conjunction with that publication.

Of great interest among these is Cage?s score for the film Works of Calder. Actor Burgess Meredith produced and narrated this documentary by Swiss filmmaker Herbert Matter on the artist Alexander Calder. Cage?s fluid prepared piano score is a major discovery, requiring an extensive preparation comparable in complexity to that of the Sonatas and Interludes. Composed in three-parts, Works of Calder?s two outer movements are newly recorded by Ms. Tan. The middle section is taken directly from the original soundtrack as Cage composed and performed it ? a percussion interlude enhanced by discreet electronic effects.

Cage wrote One2 for Ms. Tan, who worked directly with him on the conception of the piece. It scored for one pianist performing on one to four pianos; three are used here for maximum sonic and spatial effect. The damper pedals of all the pianos are wedged so that the strings vibrate freely throughout the piece ? the pianos having, in effect, become sound sculptures. By strategically positioning the pianos, their open lids act as baffles deflecting and reflecting to maximum effect the sympathetic vibrations produced. The result is an extraordinary and unique work in Cage?s oeuvre.

This disc has been recorded and edited in high resolution 24-bit sound.

Margaret Leng Tan is recognized as ?the leading exponent of John Cage?s music today? (The New Republic) and ?the most convincing interpreter of Cage?s keyboard music? (The New York Times). Her commitment to repertory transcending the piano?s conventional boundaries has inspired many composers to create performer-specific works for her.

Visit the web page at: http://www.mode.com/catalog/106cage.html
 
 
 

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RECENT REVIEWS

Mode 105
Bernadette SPEACH: Reflections

Throughout the history of recordings, women's voices have left their mark, preserving and extending traditions as they bridge past and future. Here are four terrific recent examples of women of note (the others were Ann Savoy w. Linda Ronstadt, Louise Goffin and the Eroica Trio).

Bernadette Speach (b. 1948) is part of a new breed of composers whose largely-tonal and appealing music merges jazz and classical streams with moving power.

Her latest disc, "Reflections" (Mode 105), showcases the student of Morton Feldman and Lajaren Hiller in chamber music settings that show off her profound gift for melody, color and mood, as well as her ability to project with prickly intensity. Performed by Lois Martin (viola), David Heiss (cello), Anthony de Mare (piano), husband Jeffrey Schanzer (prepared guitar), the Arditti Quartet and others (including Speach herself on solo piano), the seven works on this disc illustrate Speach's broad range.

No doubt the most compelling material comes from her collaboration with poet Thulani Davis, titled "Woman without Adornment" (1995). With Davis reciting over Speach's gently-waltzing piano/guitar backdrops and vocalist Alva Rogers
half singing, half speaking, the performers create a well-illustrated portrait of a simple mother, the household she left behind in death and the things she meant to her earthly survivors. Simplicity is at the heart of the seven vignettes in the cycle, infused with echoes of emotion and lingering connection with their subject. As is the case throughout many of the pieces, both instrumentalists and vocalists tend to complete each other's lines. It is unabashedly emotional yet paradoxically matter of fact.

Elsewhere Speach carves away and gradually reveals things, as in "When It Rains, Lleuve" (1995) for solo piano in which fragments of rhythm and melody from her trips to Puerto Rico unfold. "Chosen Voices" for prepared guitar and
toy piano, dedicated to John Cage, explores realms of childlike joy and exotic texture while "les ondes pour quatre" (1988) takes on a dark, wavelike sense of motion and density. "Viola" (2000) for viola and piano, which closes
the disc, is Speach's loving, emotional and somewhat mysterious instrumental portrait of her own mother.

Like many good things, this is a disc that rewards the listener for each listen and grows deeper with time. Grade: Scorcher!

?DANIEL BUCKLEY, Tucson Citizen, March 21, 2002
 
 

mode 35
Arthur HONEGGER: Christoph Columb
Radio Play by William Aguet
 Various actors with Buffalo Chorus and Orchestra of Opera Sacra/Charles Peltz
rec St Joseph's University Church, Buffalo, New York, 30-31 Oct 1992

        Honegger's music is here presented in its original context. What we have is a golden age radio play written for an intelligent and knowledge-acquisitive audience. The only thing that marks this production out from many of a host of productions by the BBC are the echoey church acoustic and the American accents.
        The scheme into which is woven Honegger's music is that of a vision - the presentation recalls the format of Pilgrim's Progess and Swift's Gulliver's Travels. This is a plot and morality 'in the similitude of a dream'. In this we are lead by 'The Magician' who shows us the fearsome visions of 15th century Europe - with war, burnings and plagues. Rawson acts as narrator and link throughout.
        The music is written in a deliberately accessible but not bland style. Honegger leans on his St Joan at the Stake manner. I am not sure it would sustain a concert suite but Honegger is obviously an adept at atmosphere - its creation, and intensification. His manner can be jaunty as in Farewell Christophe Colomb - which is cinema march material. The prologue has some macabre music which unknowingly looks forward to the closing pages of Martinu's Enkidu vision in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Time after time the composer whose name comes to mind is Vaughan Williams rather than Honegger's own or those of his mainland continental confrères.
        The singers and instrumentalists seem to have been well rehearsed with the performances being polished and sometimes alive with sadness - for example in Isabella's farewell to Columbus and to life [tr 21]. The baritone has little to do - just one substantial sweet-toned solo [tr 15]. The concluding Libera Me follows on from the sorrowing of the farewell in a finale part cloudy, funereal march and part lament. This is 'anchored' by calming strokes on the tam-tam.
        The notes (in English, French and German) are by Jeremy Noble.
        This is the work's first and, as far as I am aware, only recording.
        The packaging format is governed by the decision to print the words in the booklet. At 62pp the English-only booklet would never have fitted into the standard jewel box. The booklet and the standard jewel case fit easily into the card slipcase.
        Is it too much to hope that some entrepreneur will strike a deal with the BBC (and others) to release the sophisticated music-and-words radio plays that have been given in the UK? My personal dreamlist would include: The Gulliver's Travels tapes using the music of Humphrey Searle (1980s), Brecht's Svejk in the Second World War with music by Hanns Eisler and Flecker's Hassan with music by Delius.
        Well done Mode. This Honegger entry is a little out of the company's accustomed track. Much of their catalogue is taken up by Cage, Crumb and others from the current or one-time avant-garde now even more out of conventional fashion than the Honegger. Do not neglect their idiosyncratic catalogue which kicks the trends of the suited majors.

        ?Rob Barnett
Editor Classical Music on the Web
www.musicweb.uk.net
Editor, British Music Society Newsletter