Margaret Leng Tan: Sonic Encounters

Margaret Leng Tan plays prepared piano works from John Cage (the father of the prepared piano), Alan Hovhaness, George Crumb, Somei Satoh, & Ge Gan-Ru with this highly original & well recorded CD. The prepared piano was created by John Cage in the 1940's to save space & cost from hiring several percussion musicians while at the same time creating new sounds with inserted items or re-tuning the piano. In the later 20th century, several composers took up the practice to create certain tonalities or soundscapes with the prepared piano. In this recording Alan Hovhaness & George Crumb are west meeting east, while Somei Satoh & Ge Gan-Ru are east meeting west, all creating a multi-cultural modern classical expression not to be missed. (Amazon.com peer review)

John Cage
1. Primitive
for string piano
2. In the Name of the Holocaust
for prepared piano

Alan Hovhaness
3.Orbit No.2, Op.102, No.2
for piano
4. Jhala, Op.103
for piano

George Crumb
5-9. Five Pieces for Piano:
l: Quasi improvvisando
ll: Ruvido, molto energico - Prestissimo - Ruvido
lll: Notturno (sempre pizzicato)
lV: Ruvido, molto energico - Prestissimo - Ruvido
V: Senza misura, liberamente - Solenne - Tempo di primo

Somei Satoh
10. Cosmic Womb
for 2 pianos with digital delay

Gu Yue
11-14. (Ancient Music):
l: Gong
ll: Qin (Chinese zither)
lll: Pipa (Chinese lute)
lV: Drum