Musings from the Merse
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Largo Louts
Like wine tasting notes full of nose. bouquet, depth snd colours writing concert programmes is a fine art with its own codes and epithets. Last night the Blog enjoyed 'The Late Piano Works' (Beethoven-since you ask) at Paxton Hose and found they were full of deceptive lyricisms, obsessive propulsions, enigmatic pauses and silences, spaciousnesses of heavenly lengths, presenting a clenched fisted challenge ending (the Hammerklavier) teetering on the brink of chaos. Throughout the trilling was not designed to produce ectasty. So no meeting of Harry and Sally.
There was also enjoyable music.
We can now confidently look fo forward to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and the Scottish (indeed, possibly, World) premiere of his brand new piano symphony to be performed by the Primrose Piano Quartet. Rumour has it that Sir P has not completed his work and the concert is on 27 July. For goodness sake.
Will we be treated to another'Unfinished' or, if he is even more laid back than it appears:
The Unstarted.
Full of enigmatic silences, no doubt
Comments:
Lets hope there's no repeat of the fate that befell Mike Batt, the legendary (?) creator of the Wombles music. In late 2002 he paid over £100,000 to the publisher of the late John Cage’s music; a good deal more than Mike probably made from the album he’d recently recorded.
In fact it was the price of silence. Batt used a minute's silence on his album, Classical Graffiti and in a sense of fun credited it to Batt/Cage. John Cage was the American enfant terrible of the avant-garde who died in 1992, having 40 years earlier a piece called 4'33". A work that consists of precisely that much silence. Live performances had a pianist sitting at the piano for the requisite time doing absolutely nothing.
During his lifetime Cage’s acolytes played around with the idea, in the same way as he took ideas from others and included them in his work. Unfortunately Peters Edition, Cage’s publisher, has jealously guarded what they see as theirs and apparently the sound of silence is all down to J. Cage and Peters Edition. It’s a good job Paul and Art, messers, Simon & Garfunkel had the good sense to sing “the Sound of Silence”.
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In fact it was the price of silence. Batt used a minute's silence on his album, Classical Graffiti and in a sense of fun credited it to Batt/Cage. John Cage was the American enfant terrible of the avant-garde who died in 1992, having 40 years earlier a piece called 4'33". A work that consists of precisely that much silence. Live performances had a pianist sitting at the piano for the requisite time doing absolutely nothing.
During his lifetime Cage’s acolytes played around with the idea, in the same way as he took ideas from others and included them in his work. Unfortunately Peters Edition, Cage’s publisher, has jealously guarded what they see as theirs and apparently the sound of silence is all down to J. Cage and Peters Edition. It’s a good job Paul and Art, messers, Simon & Garfunkel had the good sense to sing “the Sound of Silence”.
