Cage: Etudes Australes

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one of Cage’s most deliberately complex works… [Liebner’s version is] expansive and dynamically varied — International Piano, September/October 2012 More…

Release Date: 9th Jan 2012
Catalogue No: WER67402
Label: Wergo
Length: 4 hours 20 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Cage: Études australes, Book I

Work length1:05:28

$12.00

$16.80

Sabine Liebner

Étude 1

Track length8:19

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 2

Track length8:01

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 3

Track length8:06

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 4

Track length7:58

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 5

Track length8:15

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 6

Track length8:19

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 7

Track length8:19

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 8

Track length8:11

$1.50

$2.10

Cage: Études australes, Book II

Work length1:04:56

$12.00

$16.80

Sabine Liebner

Étude 9

Track length8:17

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 10

Track length8:12

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 11

Track length7:50

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 12

Track length8:19

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 14

Track length7:50

$1.50

$2.10

Etude 14

Track length8:19

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 15

Track length8:18

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 16

Track length7:51

$1.50

$2.10

Cage: Études australes, Book III

Work length1:05:09

$12.00

$16.80

Sabine Liebner

Étude 17

Track length8:14

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 18

Track length8:05

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 19

Track length8:04

$1.50

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Étude 20

Track length8:12

$1.50

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Étude 21

Track length8:08

$1.50

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Étude 22

Track length8:07

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 23

Track length8:22

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 24

Track length7:57

$1.50

$2.10

Cage: Études australes, Book IV

Work length1:05:04

$12.00

$16.80

Sabine Liebner

Étude 25

Track length8:17

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 26

Track length8:21

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 27

Track length8:14

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 28

Track length8:14

$1.50

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Étude 29

Track length8:07

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 30

Track length7:55

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 31

Track length7:48

$1.50

$2.10

Étude 32

Track length8:08

$1.50

$2.10

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The composition of the ‘Etudes Australes’ in 1974 marks the beginning of a collection of virtuoso studies which represent Cage's renewed interest in traditional instrumentation and notation.

This complex piano composition consists of a total of 32 etudes divided into four books which John Cage based on maps of the southern night sky (‘Atlas Australis’). From these maps, locations of planets were selected via chance operations and translated into pitches. These heavenly bodies translated into pitches were notated on two systems, each of which encompasses the entire range of the piano keyboard for the right and left hands. Thus in this work, the aspect of chance also becomes an aesthetic category.

The ‘Etudes Australes’ have been recorded in a brilliant interpretation by the pianist Sabine Liebner: "The unexpected happens, because there is nothing to expect in these etudes. There is no logical sequence of events – everything is a representation of the stars. What happens here is what Cage always wanted: that the contradiction between art and life be dissolved. Art and life should not hinder each other, but form a unity, and this succeeds perfectly in the 'Etudes Australes', because what happens is always unanticipated." (Sabine Liebner) For Cage's composition, however, the moment of performance is its only moment of reality. Only what is in the present can be heard: in this case, a constantly changing kaleidoscope of sound with no expectation of repetition.

Reviews

September/October 2012

one of Cage’s most deliberately complex works… [Liebner’s version is] expansive and dynamically varied

19th January 2012

The technical and interpretative problems for the performer, who essentially has to treat each hand independently, are immense...as Sabine Liebner makes clear in her sleeve-note interview, [the recording has] been many years in preparation. That dedication comes through in her playing, in which every pitch and every chord, however arbitrary, is made to matter.

Cage: Etudes Australes

4 CDs

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