Cage, John / Feldman, Morton

Music for Keyboard 1935-1948 / The Early Years

Label: New World Records Country: USA

"This double-CD set combines two of the key titles of Columbia Records's legendary "Music of Our Time" series curated by David Behrman. Jeanne Kirstein's recording of Cage's early keyboard works remains a touchstone of Cagean interpretation notwithstanding the passage of time. Christian Wolff recalls, "I remember Cage saying that Jeanne Kirstein's playing caught the spirit in which the pieces were written at the time he wrote them-a kind of simple excitement and enthusiasm (also, surely, out of the discovery of the preparing of the piano and the great new sounds)."

The seminal 1959 Columbia LP that introduced Feldman's work to the listening public features historic performances that still resonate with passion and conviction more than four decades later. The works maybe divided into three categories: the earlier, precisely notated music (Extensions 1 for Violin and Piano, Extensions 4 for Three Pianos, Two Pieces for Two Pianos, Structures for String Quartet, Three Pieces for String Quartet); the first graphic notation pieces (Intersection 3 for Piano, Projection 4 for Violin and Piano); and the first free durational composition (Piece for Four Pianos).

To quote a prescient critic of the time, "[All eight works are] are full of spots, sparks and spangles of radiant color; a single note becomes an event of epical portent; the final result is to compact hours into seconds with an almost overwhelming intensity and depth of feeling." "-New World Records