CAGE: Music For An Aquatic Ballet, Music For Carrilon No.6 [CD de audio] Jonathan Faralli, Roberto Fabbriciani and Cage

This fascinating recording includes several first-time recordings in a wide-ranging survey of John Cage's unpredictable muse, from the simple joys of a short score written in the 1950s to a synchronized swimming exhibition, from which the album takes its title , to the most arcane pleasures of his star-chart-based musical compendium, atlas eclipticalis. Although the music inevitably varies from the most regular and predetermined score to an aesthetic of chance and serendipity, depending on the will of the performer, Cage's voice, whimsical and questioning, is present throughout, asking what music is and how and why we listen to it. A lot in a Cage performance owes to the musicians, their skill and their friendliness; nothing different in that general sense from a Schubert performance, perhaps, but an extra degree of imaginative sympathy is required from the musicians who must themselves make many important decisions about the very subject matter of what they will perform, as in two: what instruments to use? What do you notice and at what speed? Roberto Fabbriciani is an experienced musical collaborator of Cage, who worked with him and other leading figures of the postwar avant-garde for more than three decades, performing, promoting, and in many cases helping to perfect their music. He has therefore prepared his own version of the music from Atlas Eclipticalis, and here he is joined by a young percussionist who takes on the formidable requirements of one of Cage's most elaborate scores, 2710.554 for percussion. The album unfolds at its own leisurely pace, we can hear a quietly determined and wholly original composer in works for a quixotic combination of instruments. It is the latest in what is becoming a notable series of Cage recordings on Brilliant Classics , which are making a serious contribution to the composer's growing discography otherwise found on obscure, high-priced labels.