John Cage’s “In a Landscape”: An Homage to Satie

4’33” remains the most famous work of the American composer and theorist, John Cage (1912-1992). The experimental piece, composed in 1952 for any combination of instruments, requires performers to sit onstage and not play their instruments. The ambient sounds of the room take over and form the freest kind of chance music. Our ears become attuned to an ever-present sonic counterpoint. Total silence is a fallacy. One of Cage’s greatest influences was …

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Can You Say Summertime?

The free-spirited Turkish pianist and composer Fazil Say (b. 1970) is an artist who refreshingly resists easy category. As a concert pianist, Say performs all of the standard repertoire with emotional warmth and effortless technique (here he plays Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G). As a composer, he has written symphonies, piano music, which draws on the prepared piano sounds popularized by John Cage and Henry Cowell (listen to the ethereal and sensuous Black …

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