Jonathan Faralli; Roberto Fabbriciani - CAGE: Music For An Aquatic Ballet, Music For Carrilon No.6

This fascinating disc includes several first recordings in a broad survey of John Cages unpredictable muse, from the simple pleasures of a short score written in the 1950s for a synchronised swimming display, from which the album takes its title, to the more arcane delights of his musical compendium based on star-charts, Atlas Eclipticalis. Though the music inevitably ranges from the most regular and predetermined score to an aesthetic of chance and serendipity, dependent on the will of the performer, Cages voice, whimsical and questioning, is everywhere present, asking what music is and how and why we listen to it. Much is owed in a Cage performance to the musicians, their skill and their sympathy; no different in that general sense from a Schubert performance, perhaps, but an extra degree of imaginative sympathy is required of musicians who must themselves make many important decisions about the very stuff of what they will perform, such as on Two: what instruments to use? Which note