John Cage is one of those iconic or even iconoclastic names
which we all think we know better than we actually do. Though
by no means the first to write a score where the musician(s)
actions generate no actual musical sounds, his 4:33 is
one of the best known artefacts of contemporary music. The OgreOgress
label has been pioneering in producing his late number pieces,
which can range from the most intimate chamber pieces to vast
orchestral monoliths.
As It Is has been released to coincide with the 100th
anniversary of the birth of John Cage, and explores his early
works from the 1930s and ‘40s. Alexei Lubimov, whose Debussy
recordings on ECM 2241/42 are one of my all-time favourites,
was amongst the first to introduce his music in Moscow in the
1970s, much to the ire of the authorities of the time. His later
working relationship with the composer during the 1980s is illustrated
in photos in the booklet. The opening and closing work Dream
is a surprise, setting the mood for much of the rest of the
programme, sounding as much like something ambient by Harold
Budd as anything scarily complex.
Cage’s fascination with language and vocal sounds attracted
him to independently spirited writers such as James Joyce, Gertrude
Stein, and e.e. Cummings, and vocalist Natalia Pschenitschnikova
is entirely in sympathy with the worlds Cage creates, from the
medieval monodies of Experiences No. 2, to more abstract
but intensely artful settings of Stein such as the minimal At
East and ingredients. Joyce’s The Wonderful Widow
of Eighteen Springs is accompanied by knockings on the wood
of the piano, and an atmosphere of almost childlike simplicity
can be found in some of the e.e. Cummings settings, though the
language also inspires some of Cage’s most rhythmic work.
Particularly and literally striking is the Joyce setting Nowth
upon nacht, which does throw up one or two idiosyncratic
pronunciations but, like one of Michael Nyman’s list songs,
is emphatic in its almost monotone high vocal line.
Fans of Cage’s Sonatas & Interludes will also
find much to enjoy here, with rich nuances from damped piano
strings in The Unavailable Memory of, the classic milestone
work Music for Marcel Duchamp, and gems such as A
Room which is like a Jan Tinguely sculpture expressed in
music, or the gently poetic and genuinely beautiful Prelude
for Meditation. Conventional piano sounds can be found here
as well, though silence is also a key ingredient in the Two
Pieces for Piano.
The piano pieces here are by no means unknown, but with richly
recorded and expressive performances they just about top the
versions which coincide with those played by Stephen Drury on
the Catalyst label (In a Landscape, 09026 61980 2), which
are indeed also excellent. If you are a real Cage fan you will
want both of course, as the programmes differ considerably.
Lubimov has already recorded In a Landscape for ECM in
the 2002 recital Der Bote. If I have a criticism of this
ECM recording it is the halo of resonance particularly noticeable
around the singer. Even for myself as a devotee of ECM records
and a sucker for whopping acoustic spaces this becomes distracting
in the more rhythmic songs like hist whist, which sounds
as if placed in an empty swimming pool. There is also a distinct
lack of dates in the documentation for the actual pieces, though
song texts are provided in the booklet, along with a text by
Paul Griffiths which manages to convey plenty of useful information
at the same time as plenty of creative vapidity. Aside from
these minor grumbles we have another marvellously atmospheric
and deeply involving release from ECM New Series which, in its
exploration of John Cage’s opens up unexpected musical
nuggets and provides context for his entire creative world.
Dominy Clements
alternatively
CD: MDT
AmazonUK
AmazonUS
Alexei Lubimov (piano, prepared piano)
