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GIANNI LENOCI:  "ONE - JOHN CAGE PIANO MUSIC"   SC002


This album is a collection of some of the piano compositions by John Cage that more demonstrate his aestetic and spiritual path of this genial and controversial musician, surely among the most important and significative of '900. This program is pulling together works from his first period ('Dream' and 'In a Landscape') in which Cage explores the metrics and the peculiarities of the non-Western cultures and the latest compositions (belonging to the 'Number Pieces' series) in which the sound is reaching the purest abstraction and authonomy. 'One 5' is in fact the last piano composition of this author. Lenoci's interpretation is full of poetry and essential, through a pianism rich of fades and exceptional care for the detail and of the dynamics, delivered by a technically outstanding recording.

Questo album raccoglie alcune tra le composizioni pianistiche di John Cage a testimonianza del percorso estetico e spirituale di questo geniale e controverso compositore fra i più importanti e significativi del '900.
Il programma è impaginato accostando ed alternando lavori del primo periodo ('Dream' e 'In a Landscape') in cui Cage esplora le metriche e le modalità linguistiche extraoccidentali, alle ultime composizioni (appartenenti alla serie dei cosidetti "Number Pieces") in cui il suono raggiunge la più  pura astrazione ed autonomia.
ONE5 è infatti l'ultima composizione per pianoforte scritta da John Cage.
Lenoci offre, di queste pagine, un'interpretazione poetica ed essenziale attraverso un pianismo ricco di sfumature e grande cura del dettaglio e delle dinamiche, valorizzato da una registrazione di particolare qualità tecnica.
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In a Landscape
The rhythmic structure is 15 x 15 measures (5-7-3), following the structure of the dance for which it was written. The piece is similar to Dream, but the fixed gamut of tones is more extensive. Resonances are sustained throughout the composition, by using both pedals. The sound of the composition is very soft and meditative, reminding of the music of Erik Satie.

One
10 systems of pianochords, varying in dynamics, selected by chance. Each system is roughly 1 minute long, all but one flexible. Each system contains 2 sets of chords. The order of each set is maintained, but the relationship between the two sets of chords is free.

Dream
Dream was written for Merce Cunningham's dance. The music follows the rhythmic structure of the choreography and uses a fixed gamut of tones. Throughout the composition resonances are sustained, either manually or with the pedal. The music is essentially a single melodic line, except for the last few bars

One5
Like in One4, the left and right hands have seperate time brackets. The left hand has 21 brackets, the right hand has 24. The timespan for the beginning of a system is between 0'15" and 1'15". The end of a system has the same timespan as the beginning. There are overlaps inside and between the time brackets. The amount of notes for each bracket is one, two or three, with a total of 97 for the whole composition. Dynamics are free. The use of the sostenuto pedal is recommended (though not obligatory), to maintain the sonorities of the piano as long as possible.

Sources: Paul van Emmerik: Thema's en Variaties (New York Public Library online catalogue); David Revill: The Roaring Silence (C.F.Peters online catalogue); David Vaughan: Merce Cunningham - Fifty Years (Aperture,2005); Rob Haskins: "An Anarchic Society of Sounds": The Number Pieces of John Cage
(Dissertation for the Ph.D. in Musicology at the University of Rochester, 2004).