Maro Ajemian, piano
“Oh, damn it! I wish I'd thought of that!” -- Lou Harrison, on the invention by John Cage of the prepared piano.
John Cage (1912-1992) wrote the Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano gradually between 1946 and 1948. Maro Ajemian, to whom the work is dedicated, premiered the first four in performance at Town Hall in 1946, and she gave the first New York performance of the full set at a celebrated concert in Carnegie Recital Hall on January 12, 1949. The concert was considered a milestone in Cage’s career, the Sonatas and Interludes instantly recognized as both the culmination of Cage’s decade of writing for the prepared piano and as his first genuine masterpiece.
“John Cage came into his own last night both as an innovator and a composer,” Ross Parmenter wrote the next day in the New York Times. “It left one with the feeling that Mr. Cage is now one of the country’s finest composers and that his invention has now been vindicated musically.” Although the Sonatas and Interludes has become among the most performed and recorded of Cage’s works, the original recording of it by Ajemian in 1951 for Dial Records and reissued here for the first time on CD was always considered by Cage, who had often at the time played the work himself, definitive.
This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Liner notes are accessible via the link above.
John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
| MP3/320 | $16.00 | |
| FLAC | $16.00 | |
| WAV | $16.00 | |
| CD-R | $16.00 |
A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
Track Listing
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata I
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata II
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata III
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata IV
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: First Interlude
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata V
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata VI
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata VII
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata VIII
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Second Interlude
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Third Interlude
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata IX
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata X
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata XI
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata XII
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Fourth Interlude
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata XIII
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonatas XIV and XV
John Cage
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Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano: Sonata XVI
John Cage
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