American Classics: Cage - Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano

     

This is a well recorded, meticulously played performance of music at once accessible and yet challenging. The music exists in the borderlands between the Western Classical piano tradition exemplified by Debussy, gamelan music and Aphex Twin. Boris Berman is a formidable player whose abilities are all the more impressive for being kept in reserve for much of this music. John Cage can be prone to exploring great ideas that do not necessarily produce great music but in these compositions he sets himself alongside some of the great cycles of piano music produced in the twentieth century. Highly recommended.