LESS IS MORE

Is there a more iconic composition than 4’33”? For precisely 4 minutes and 33 seconds, the audience is pointed to a silence that turns out not to exist at all. Love it or hate it, with his blank score John Cage’s cemented his status as one of the major musical innovators of the twentieth century. More generally, 4’33” symbolises the free artistic climate of post-war New York and by extension, America.

Conducted by Manoj Kamps, HERMESensemble and I SOLISTI present a selection of the rich fallout from this.

Although Morton Feldman was very close to Cage, he nevertheless developed a highly unique musical language. For Samuel Beckett is a late but characteristic work: sustained notes interact irregularly and shape the apparently aimless ensuing music. Less is more, as Terry Riley also knows, despite opting for a rhythmically tight organisation of his own material. With In C he thus laid the foundations for minimal music.

Photo: Andreas Terlaak