Sabine Liebner | John Cage | Solo for Piano

John Cage | „Solo for Piano “(1957/58) 

As early as the 1950s, John Cage attempted to make the genesis of his compositions dependent on chance procedures. A few years later, this randomness of the compositional process was joined by the practical indeterminacy of performance, which aims to detach the compositional design from the interpretative result.

One of the first compositions in which this principle was applied is the “Concert for Piano and Orchestra.” However, the piano part of the “Concert for Piano and Orchestra,” which is an independent piece under the title “Solo for Piano,” was composed without the use of chance operations. Yet the principle of indeterminacy in performance practice is also at work here: the notation is modified here as an “offer” to the performer. Thus, the variability of the piano part, the formation of which has to be decided anew each time, already gives rise to a high degree of indeterminacy. In addition, access to the notation—in the sense of developing a playable musical text—is left to the performer's own creative input.

Cage describes the “Solo for Piano” as a “book” consisting of 84 different types of composition; he thus understands the notations as closed sign systems in the sense of autonomous musical written languages, which do not merely represent the “compositional works,” but rather constitute them directly. However, “composing” here does not mean the irrevocable writing down of a musical text, but rather the deciphering of the graphic notation by the interpreter. To this end, the 64 pages are preceded by detailed instructions. From: Autonomie nach Regeln, Michael Rebhahn, John Cage, Solo for Piano, WERGO 2013, Sabine Liebner Piano.

Experience Liebner’s interpretation of Cage’s piano works in Cy Twombly's Roses Gallery.

The concert accompanies the exhibition “Five Friends. John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly.”

The museum café is open for you from 6 pm.

Sabine Liebner
Sabine Liebner, internationally renowned pianist of New Music, is considered one of the most important interpreters of John Cage’s piano works and is one of the few musicians worldwide to have performed Cage’s “Etudes Australes” in their entirety. Her extensive discography, radio recordings and invitations to international festivals testify to her extraordinary artistic work, which has been honored with numerous awards (including WIRE REWIND, fff TÉLÉRAMA, scherzo Disco Excepcional, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, OPUS Klassik, awards from The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, Goethe-Institut, multiple nominations for the German Record Critics' Award and OPUS Klassik).