On the home page of this site, I main­tain a news feed that keeps track of sto­ries on John Cage, in this, his cen­ten­nial year. I’ll also be writ­ing a cou­ple things for pub­li­ca­tion in other jour­nals, and in the mean­time, I troll the inter­tubes for news of new and reis­sued record­ings (if you have a COMPLETEBOXSETEDITION fetish like me, you’re prob­a­bly ago­niz­ing over who will be putting together a com­plete archive of his enor­mous cat­a­log, and how much it’s going to cost in blood, sweet and money you/I don’t have. Will it be you, Mode?) and I’ve got some recommendations:

This is an excel­lent cor­ner­stone for both com­plete­ness and qual­ity. Schleiermacher’s play­ing and think­ing are con­sis­tently clear and good. That he has his own par­tic­u­lar style in much of this music, not just in terms of fol­low­ing Cage’s instruc­tions to make choices in many pieces, but in terms of musi­cal expres­sion, is an impor­tant com­men­tary on inter­pre­ta­tion. Yes, Cage is open to inter­pre­ta­tion, that mat­ters and enhances his impor­tance and, yes, greatness.

The 25 Year Ret­ro­spec­tive Con­cert of John Cage — It was May, 1958 and Cage was already a vitally impor­tant artist, with so many more explo­rations and dis­cov­er­ies to come. This is an essen­tial record­ing, not just as a stand-alone sur­vey of early to mid-period mas­ter­pieces, but as a doc­u­ment of the his­tory of ideas in civ­i­liza­tion. This col­lec­tion has been in and out of print for years, now re-issued by Wergo, and Ama­zon has the best price for the dig­i­tal down­load version.

Wergo has also re-issued Grete Sultan’s impor­tant record­ing of the almost-impossible-to-play Etudes Aus­trales, music writ­ten for her and the pre­miere record­ing (there’s also a fine, new one from Sabine Lieb­ner, at a good price for download).

The execs at Decca Clas­sics have sur­pris­ingly, and gladly, decided to release a new record­ing of the Sonatas and Inter­ludes for Pre­pared Piano, played by John Tilbury!

Petr Kotik’s record­ing of the Con­cert for Piano and Orches­tra with Atlas Eclip­ti­calis, one of the very finest exam­ples of a Cage per­for­mance and utterly beau­ti­ful, is avail­able for down­load at the amaz­ing price of $1.98! Too cheap not to buy.