Prom 47: Cage Centenary Celebration
7.45pm, 17 August, Royal Albert Hall, London
To mark the centenary of John Cage’s birth, Ilan Volkov has curated a programme that reflects the composer’s iconoclastic thinking, fertile imagination and arresting humour.
John Tilbury, who has for decades been associated with Cage’s work tonight plays the exquisitely beautiful Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra. Cassette players and plucked cactuses are just two examples of the blindingly original yet almost naively simple thinking that saw Cage – wittingly or otherwise – upturn practically every musical rule in the book.
The following pieces will be performed over the course of the evening, and Vicki Bennett will be one of eight participants performing “Improvisation III” and “Branches”.
Cage – 1O1 (12 mins)
Cage – Improvisation III (12 mins)
Christian Marclay – Luggage 2012 – improvisation for orchestra (c5 mins)
Cage – Atlas eclipticalis/Winter Music/Cartridge Music (30 mins)
Cage – Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra (20 mins)
Cage – Four2 (7 mins)
Cage – But what about the noise of crumpling paper … (15 mins)
Cage – Experiences II (3 mins)
Cage – ear for EAR (Antiphonies) (2 mins)
David Behrman, Takehisa Kosugi, Keith Rowe & Christian Wolff – Quartet – improvisation (c25 mins)
Cage – Branches (20 mins)
More information here: bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2012/august-17/14218