John Cage - The 25-Year Retrospective Concert Of The Music Of John Cage - Recorded in performance at Town Hall, New York, May 15, 1958

Recorded live at Town Hall, NYC in May of 1958, this historic concert (organized by Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg) was a retrospective of Cage’s work from 1934 to the present. Here Cage’s interest in technology, Eastern philosophies, and the concept of “silence” and “chance” as related to composition come to the fore as he plays some of his most significant and controversial pieces of his career, several of which (“Six Short Inventions for Seven Instruments”, “She Is Asleep”, “Music for Carillon”, and “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra” [in which Merce Cunningham took the part of the conductor – the “living clock” – and David Tudor that of the pianist]), were performed here for the first time ever. This concert created quite a stir for its time, with many journalists and audience members loudly complaining “this isn’t music”!

Track listing

Side A:

1. Six Short Inventions For Seven Instruments
2. First Construction In Metal
3. Imaginary Landscape No. 1
4. The Wonderful Widow Of Eighteen Springs

Side B:

1. Sonatas and Interludes - Sonata I
2. Sonatas and Interludes - Sonata II
3. Sonatas and Interludes - Sonata III
4. Sonatas and Interludes - Sonata IV
5. Sonatas and Interludes - First Interlude
6. Sonatas and Interludes - Sonata V
7. Sonatas and Interludes - Sonata VI
8. Sonatas and Interludes - Sonata VII
9. Sonatas and Interludes - Sonata VIII
10. Second Interlude

Side C:

1. Music for Carillon No. 1
2. Williams Mix
3. She Is Asleep [Quartet]
4. She Is Asleep [Duo]

Side D:
1. Concert for Piano and Orchestra

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