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Description
As long ago as the 1950s John Cage tried to make the genesis of his compositions dependent on random processes. Several years later this randomness of the compositional process was reflected in the indeterminacy of the performance, with the aim of separating the compositional design from the interpretive result.
One of the first compositions in which this principle comes to bear, is the “Concert for Piano and Orchestra”. The piece has no overall score – each individual part is however written out in detail. The scores of the orchestral parts are recorded in three different sizes, which can be ambiguously associated to duration and volume. The concrete form of the notes resulted from the use of different random processes, including through the reinterpretation of the irregularities of music paper into notation symbols.
The piano part of the “Concert for Piano and Orchestra”, a piece that stands on its own under the name “Solo for Piano”, emerged on the other hand without the use of chance operations. However, the principle of indeterminacy of performance also applies here. “Solo for Piano” comprises 63 pages with 84 different types of graphical structures, which, due to their shape, are reminiscent of musical notation, but on the other hand represent no clearly reproducible notes. Here, the notation is modified into a "proposal" for the performer; thus, all kinds of implementation of the score are infinitely possible. This already ensures a maximum degree of indeterminacy through the variability of the piano part, whose formation is to be decided anew each time. In addition, access to the notation – within the meaning of the development of a playable musical text – is left to the creative effort of the performer.
On the present CD, Sabine Liebner presents her unique interpretation of "Solo for Piano". She is a pianist of high renown throughout the world and regarded as “currently most important interpreter of the piano works by John Cage” (Andreas Göbel, Kulturradio rbb).
co-production: Bayerischer Rundfunk