FRITZ HAUSER & SERGIO ARMAROLI

JOHN CAGE: ABOUTCAGE VOL.8 ONE 4 - SOLOS FOR PERCUSSION

Questo album raccoglie alcuni brani per percussioni scritti da John Cage; Fritz Hauser, uno dei due percussionisti protagonisti di questa registrazione (l'altro è Sergio Armaroli) è anche il dedicatario di uno di essi. Partendo da 27′ 10.554″ e comprendendo le Composed Improvisations Nos. 2 e 3 e due diverse versioni (ognuna suonata da uno dei percussionisti) di One4, questo album presenta un emozionante itinerario che esplora non solo la musica di Cage per percussioni, ma anche, e soprattutto, il suo uso dei processi casuali, dell'improvvisazione e della composizione. L'indeterminazione gioca un ruolo fondamentale in questi lavori, per cui - a differenza della maggior parte delle opere della tradizione occidentale - ciò che identifica l'"opera" è il processo che la sottende, piuttosto che il suo effettivo aspetto sonoro.

RECENSIONI/ REVIEWS

n.355/ Aprile 2024

di Giovanni Battista Boccardo

The excellent About Cage series from Da Vinci Publishing reaches its eighth volume with an extremely intriguing set of percussion works, including one in two versions. One4, one of Cage’s magnificent number pieces, is interpreted by Sergio Armaroli and Fritz Hauser, to whom it was dedicated and who gave the premiere.

27’ 10.554” has a fascinating history, and the recording presented here was made to match it. The piece is the last composed of Cage’s unfinished Ten Thousand Things series, and the title represents the time Cage dictates to perform it. The sole percussionist is to choose at least one instrument from four categories: metal, wood, skin, and “all others.” The composition involves chance operations and a reasonable amount of performer liberty, though Hauser’s note indicates that dynamics are notated. Hauser recorded each sound separately at the prescribed dynamic level. As each sound is separate, there is no movement recorded, as one might normally hear in a timbrally diverse performance such as this. The only other recording I have in my collection is by Jonathan Faralli (Brilliant Classics BRI9284), and there is indeed the movement one would expect, along with the humorous insertion of what sounds like a fly, presumably in the “all other” category. Hauser employs his collection of bird whistles, and they enhance and complement the huge stereo spectrum in which every detail is foregrounded. Think of the Stockhausen Edition’s similarly microscopic, almost surgical, attention to detail to get an idea of what to expect.

Comparing the two versions of 27’ 10.554” demonstrated the near futility of the venture. The same is true of the two Composed Improvisations pieces on offer. The third, for one-sided drum, is performed with particular vividness by Armaroli, which is down as much to a really fine recording as to Armaroli’s seemingly infinite array and structure of jangled and intoned sonic layers. All of these qualifiers inform this disc’s other highlight, the beautifully sustaining One4, though the fact that we are given two versions necessitates some sort of comparative evaluation. Both versions are deeply meditative, but Hauser’s rendering employs more conventional pitch. It is also a bit louder overall, more up front, more direct and even confrontational. Armaroli’s take is backlit, with a mellow character imbuing its spacious deployment of sound and silence, and its metallic construction moonlit in contrast to Hauser’s sun-drenched chords and throbbing crystalline tones.

More than with any other composer, when I listen to Cage discs, I’m listening for something I’ll clumsily call sonic sincerity. Yes, I’m aware that it’s a copout, but there has been an evolving Cage performance tradition that’s taken us a very long way from that fraught 1958 retrospective, in which Cage’s piano concerto was howled down by the audience. This series has been beautifully recorded, and the soundstage is as large as the sonic palette is inclusive. These are performances in which to get lost, inviting hours of exploration and re-audition.

Marc Medwin

This article originally appeared in Issue 47:5 (May/June 2024) of Fanfare Magazine.