John Cage: Early Piano Music

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Difficult listening here. If you were expecting Windham Hill, change the channel now! That being said, while this is not terribly approachable music, it is very well performed by Mr. Henck and is exquisitely recorded in typical ECM fashion. Drawn from John Cage’s early work for piano in the 30’s and 40’s, this is deconstructive art school music at its best. I would bet money that if you were able to get a few beers in Brian Eno, he would admit to some inspiration for his famous series of ambient albums here. Again, there is not much sense of rhythm or structure here and the disc is broken down into nine tracks spanning 70 minutes. While the liner notes are intriguing, mentioning Cale taking piano lessons with Schonenberg (who also remarks that he has no sense of harmony) this one is best left on the shelf for your audiophile club friends, as background music for cooking or perhaps getting unwanted guests out of the house. My nosey next door neighbor was over the other day and when I put this one on, she made tracks for the door pronto. But for those of you that like more avant works, this is very intriguing and I guarantee after a few auditions will grow on you. - Jeff Dorgay

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Tracks:

The Seasons (1947)
Prelude I
Winter
Prelude II
Spring
Prelude III
Summer
Prelude IV
Fall
Finale (Prelude I)

Metamorphosis (1938)
I ~ V

In a Landscape (1948)
Ophelia (1946)

Two Pieces for Piano (≈ 1935, rev.1974)
I Slowly
II Quite fast

Quest (1935)

Two Pieces for Piano (1946)
I ~ II

Herbert Henck: piano