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Margaret Leng Tan + Joan La Barbara - John Cage - The Perilous Night + Four Walls (1991)

Track listing:
  1. Full Cd In Ape With Cue 71:16
  2. The Perilous Night (1944): 1 2:26
  3. 2 0:46
  4. 3 4:31
  5. 4 1:07
  6. 5 0:38
  7. 6 3:20
  8. Four Walls (1944): Scene I 3:07
  9. Scene Ii 3:59
  10. Scene Iii 6:26
  11. Scene Iv 6:40
  12. Scene V 3:58
  13. Scene Vi 3:14
  14. Scene Vii 2:22
  15. Scene Viii 3:18
  16. Scene Ix 5:36
  17. Scene X 2:05
  18. Scene Xi 4:07
  19. Scene Xii 1:11
  20. Scene Xiii 11:24

Notes

New Albion:
Described by The Village Voice as ''the world's premiere string piano virtuoso'', the performances by Margaret Leng Tan comes across as very strong in light of the typically disengaged continuity of Cagean long silences. Joan La Barbara's chaste tones provide additional contrast. "The Perilous Night" was written for the prepared piano, John Cage's now classic invention from the late 1930's, where various objects inserted between the strings of a grand piano act as mutes which completely transform the timbral characteristics of the instrument. "The Perilous Night", one of Cage's more complex preparations, calls for a piano to be heavily muted with materials ranging from the standard bolts, nuts and weather stripping to bamboo slivers.

Margaret Leng Tan, prepared piano, piano
Joan La Barbara, soprano

New Albion Records: NA037