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5:4
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John Cage

  • 20th CenturyCD/Digital releases

    Michael Gielen Edition Vol. 10: Music after 1945

    by 5:4 February 18, 2022 • 13:21
    February 18, 2022 • 13:21

    i’m really not a conductor fanboy. Composers are always getting me excited; performers too, from time to time; but conductors, in general, not so much. There are some special cases: Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Chailly have both stunned me on countless occasions; i’ve always had a lot of time for…

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  • Advent CalendarPremières

    John Cage – Variations I for Stephen Montague (World Première)

    by 5:4 December 4, 2021 • 05:00
    December 4, 2021 • 05:00

    Something of an oddity behind today’s Advent Calendar door, and a real rarity too. Some decades ago, US composer Stephen Montague, who had developed a close relationship with John Cage, had asked Cage for a piano piece. Nothing came of this until 1990 when, in Montague’s words, He borrowed a…

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Ensemble Musikfabrik – Stille, Label Musikfabrik

    by 5:4 December 18, 2017 • 14:59
    December 18, 2017 • 14:59

    Let’s talk about Ensemble Musikfabrik. First off, the German ensemble is responsible for some of the most memorable and fascinating concerts i’ve ever attended. Their performances during the 2016 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival remain personal favourites, both the opening weekend concert – including among other things, Georg Friedrich Haas’ I can’t breathe…

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  • ConcertsPremières

    A mass of miniature miracles: Alba New Music 2016

    by 5:4 October 12, 2016 • 11:01
    October 12, 2016 • 11:01

    A couple of miles out of the centre of Edinburgh, emblazoned in brightly-lit capital letters, is a stark, startling sentence: THERE WILL BE NO MIRACLES HERE. Created by Nathan Coley in 2009, and situated outside the Modern Two gallery, the unequivocal message of this bold piece of art rang entirely…

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  • CD/Digital releases

    New releases: Matthias Kaul, Ensemble Musikfabrik – works by Cage, Hosokawa, Harvey, Poppe, Saariaho & Nunes

    by 5:4 March 6, 2016 • 17:27
    March 6, 2016 • 17:27

    Three recent releases on Wergo have stayed true to the German label’s tendency to go above and beyond one’s expectations. It’s hard to say which is more remarkable, John Cage or percussionist Matthias Kaul, on Cage After Cage, an album featuring renditions of six of the composer’s works for percussion,…

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  • Best of the YearMixtapes

    Mixtape #32 : Best Albums of 2014

    by 5:4 January 1, 2015 • 13:14
    January 1, 2015 • 13:14

    HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! Many, many thanks to all of you who have followed the blog through the last 12 months, particularly to all those who have commented and tweeted in response or retort. As usual, here’s my new year mixtape featuring a track from all forty of my Best…

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  • Best of the Year

    Best Albums of 2014 (Part 2)

    by 5:4 December 31, 2014 • 10:58
    December 31, 2014 • 10:58

    * Please note this list has how been superseded by the one on the Best Albums of the Years page * Bringing the main course to an end, here’s the conclusion of the countdown of my forty best albums of 2014. It’s been a breathtaking year. 20 | Salvatore Sciarrino – Cantare con silenzio…

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  • CD/Digital releases

    CD roundup (gli altri)

    by 5:4 April 29, 2014 • 21:27
    April 29, 2014 • 21:27

    Having recently examined the more interesting soloistic and orchestral new releases, it’s time to give an overview of the best of the rest, music that doesn’t fit quite so easily into nice categories. First, released today on the Innova label, is Sunken Cathedral, the new album from Korean-American composer and…

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  • Lent Series

    John Cage – String Quartet in Four Parts

    by 5:4 March 21, 2013 • 21:05
    March 21, 2013 • 21:05

    In addition to intimacy, the string quartet is a medium capable of remarkable levels of austerity. It’s no surprise, then, that John Cage turned to the quartet as the vehicle for a work in which, “without actually using silence, I should like to praise it” (as Cage wrote to his…

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  • Lent Series

    John Cage – The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs

    by 5:4 March 21, 2012 • 20:43
    March 21, 2012 • 20:43

    Austerity is probably not the first characteristic that would come to mind when describing the music of John Cage, and yet that’s precisely what dominates his short song The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs, composed in 1942. The text is extracted from a passage (on page 556) of James Joyce’s…

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  • Best of the YearMixtapes

    Mixtape #22 : Best Albums of 2011

    by 5:4 January 1, 2012 • 16:37
    January 1, 2012 • 16:37

    A very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all! 5:4 is four years old today, and as in previous years, here’s a new mixtape showcasing the music from my best albums of 2011. One track from each of them—in total, 3½ hours of eclectica to start the new year in real…

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  • Best of the Year

    Best Albums of 2011 (Part 1)

    by 5:4 December 30, 2011 • 10:11
    December 30, 2011 • 10:11

    * Please note this list has how been superseded by the one on the Best Albums of the Years page * The list exists as a way of celebrating the known things which we all share that make us part of the same adventure, but the list also exists as…

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  • Festivals

    Proms 2010: Cage, Cardew, Skempton and Feldman

    by 5:4 August 27, 2010 • 18:09
    August 27, 2010 • 18:09

    A few hours after the bizarre final notes of Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 4 had faded away, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ilan Volkov came to the Royal Albert Hall to present the Proms with a late-night performance of rather more experimental fare. They began with one of…

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  • Premières

    HCMF 2008: Markus Trunk, Richard Barrett, John Cage

    by 5:4 July 29, 2009 • 07:17
    July 29, 2009 • 07:17

    Returning to the (more recent) archives, here are some interesting works taking a look back at the 2008 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Markus Trunk‘s Parhelion is most striking for its extreme delicacy; after a while, the prominent celesta actually starts to sound loud. The material appears as though formed from…

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5:4
  • About
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  • The Lists
    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • Compositions reviewed on 5:4
    • Composer Map
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
    • Festivals reviewed on 5:4
    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
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  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
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