MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

John CAGE (1912-1992)
Seven (1988) [20:00]
Quartets I-VIII (1976) [40:31]
Orchester Jakobsplatz München/Daniel Grossman
rec. 7 April 2007, Hubert-Burda-Saal, Jüdisches Zentrum, München (Seven); 5-6 May 2007, Goethe Forum Munich. DDD
NEOS 10720  [60:48] 
Experience Classicsonline


These are two pieces with two entirely different basic starting points, but each with their own freedoms and controls. Seven is framed like an oil painting – the exact boundaries are the number of musicians; seven, and the length of the piece – exactly 20 minutes. These would seem to be unlikely stipulations for what is essentially an improvisatory work, but the musicians play from 20 notated bars – their freedom lying in the moments at which they start or stop playing. In this way, the character of the music is guaranteed, even when each performance is a unique version of the work. This character is essentially meditative, with many long sustained notes, the character of the instruments dictating how these notes sound. In regard to this the piano has a powerful role, the attack and delay of the notes having a strong character against all of the others. Bowed percussion, winds and strings simultaneously exist within their own little worlds and contribute to the whole, from a double-bass which sometimes sounds like a subway train is passing, to the ringing sustain of a clarinet. The slow moving chorale which results has many moments of chance beauty, but the general feel is one of other-worldliness – a musical transport to realms where the imagination can run riot, if you are prepared to allow it so to do. 

Quartets I-VIII was written for the bicentennial of the U.S.A., and uses eight old American chorales which were fragmented by Cage and reformed into this piece using the Chinese I Ching as a guide to where each should be placed. The Quartets in the title refers to the way in which only four instruments of the 24 strong ensemble are playing at any one time. The exposed nature of the music allied to its clearly tonal basis make for a Mozartean challenge to performers. As Daniel Grossman says in his notes, “...the most difficult requirement is fitting the few notes to be played... such that meaningful phrases ultimately result.” In fact, this is a kind of Weberneque extension of Charles Ives’s irreverent treatment of traditional and venerable old American musics, and the shadow of Copland is never all that far away either – you wouldn’t be entirely surprised if “Tis a Gift to be Simple” were suddenly to break through. By the way, these early American pieces are also known as ‘shape note hymns’, so called because the notes were given different shapes related to the “fa so la” scale as well as being conventionally placed on the stave, so that everyone could join in. Each movement of Quartets has a similar, slow evolution, though some, as with numbers V and the lively VI, can be very short indeed. As with Seven, the moments of euphonic beauty have a chance feel to them, but with plenty of consonant intervals and almost recognisable melodic shapes around Quartets always has a feel of ongoing, tantalisingly irresolvable cadence.

This SACD recording is very good and has a superb sense of depth, but brings the musicians in very close – I certainly had more the feeling that I was sitting amongst the players rather than as an audience. This has its benefits, but made the experience as much analytical journey as one which can be witnessed and enjoyed from a respectful distance. The fairly dry acoustics of each venue also contribute to this close feel. The playing is very good – sensitive to Cage’s idiom, and usually full of life and expression even under the ‘difficult’ conditions of the bare-bones style of the music. The oboe has a bit of a problem making a nice tone from out of nowhere sometimes in Quartets, but I sympathise – it must be hell getting a double reed to behave under such sparse conditions.

There seem to be very few if any recordings of either of these works around, so this release is a very welcome addition to the catalogue. My only niggle is the inherent contradiction in putting this music on CD at all. Daniel Grossman says “the objective of making every performance unique was one of John Cage’s central principles”, but every time you play the recording you just get the same one version, each time, over and over...

Dominy Clements


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.