ECM label - CDs

“…Cage's notoriety was derived from his more overtly radical ideas, but he was equally capable of more subtle kinds of subversion. This sonically immaculate CD is packed with such eminently approachable, slightly puckish music which typifies Cage's work during the period, with Metamorphosis and Ophelia being further highlights. ...Henck is particularly adept at preserving the composer's unique musicality which is often over-sanitised by modern performance and production techniques.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2005 ****

“The shock here is that this is simply piano music – no preparations, nothing played from the inside, every detail notated. In a Landscape, with a dozen recordings already, tops Cage's greatest hits. It was written for dance, can be played on harp or piano, and again exercises its uncanny, mesmeric powers in this performance by Herbert Henck, who takes it much more slowly than the marked tempo. But Henck's performances throughout are fastidious in representing every detail of the scores.
The longest work, The Seasons (1947), was a ballet for Lincoln Kirstein which, like the Sonatas and Interludes, shows Cage's interest in Indian philosophy before he moved on to Zen.
At this period, perceptibly under the influence of Satie, Cage would assemble a collection of attractive sounds and then rotate them automatically, a procedure that became his trademark.
The Two Pieces (1946) use some of the same autonomous sonorities as The Seasons in a different context.
Some of these early pieces are not linked to dance but stem from Cage's study with Schoenberg and his development of his own kind of row technique. Late in life Cage liked his early key- board pieces but found A Metamorphosis the least interesting. These are fascinating documents, well recorded, which bring this part of Cage's enormous output quite naturally into the mainstream of 20th-century piano music.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The Prokofiev Seventh is a subtle reading, perfectly conveying the nostalgia and skewed lyricism of the first two movements and producing a pounding, pulverising account of the toccata-like finale.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2005 *****

“…Apollon Musagète is the most substantial work on the disc, and the performance is characterised by impeccable balance, lithe phrasing and some effective solo playing, especially from the leader. More than that, it really dances, with lightness and elegance in the variations for Polyhymnia and Terpsichore, and affectionate melodic lines in the 'Pas de deux'.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2005 ****

“Kanchieli's position as a powerful and individual voice is becoming more apparent with each vividly recorded issue in ECM's continuing series” BBC Music Magazine, April 2005

“By tailoring his solo sonatas to fit the styles of six very different violinists Eugène Ysaÿe may have been acting as the ultimate critic, describing his subjects with musical illustrations rather than mere words. For example, there are the winking appoggiaturas in the finale of No 4, dedicated to Kreisler, which Thomas Zehetmair throws off with a mere flick of the wrist, or the rich chord structures of No 1, whose dedicatee, Joseph Szigeti, was a great Bach player. Bach is a particularly strong presence there, the key (G minor) and language so reminiscent of his first solo sonata. Again, the Jacques Thibaud piece, No 2 in A minor, has obsessive repetitions of the Prelude from Bach's E major Partita, played initially by Zehetmair with the lightest touch, though later repetitions gain in intensity. The sinister melding of Bach with the 'Dies irae' chant has to be one of the canniest masterstrokes of the period. There are stylistic parallels between No 2 and No 4, just as there were similarities between the players themselves.
The spicy Sixth Sonata recalls the Spanish fiddler Manuel Quiroga and takes on Latin influences, initially suggesting Ravel's Tzigane (composed at around the same time, though the similarity is probably coincidental) before shifting, a little later, to habañera mode.
As the ultimate thinking virtuoso, Zehetmair is an ideal interpreter of these pieces, delving between the notes, coaxing a wealth of colour, inflection and dynamic shading from each score, always with acute imagination. He is both explorer and demonstrator, his modes of attack as varied as his tone colouring. This is the best possible showcase for some marvellous if still undervalued music.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010