[silence] silence Digest, Vol 71, Issue 13

[Daniel Wolf]

Petr Kotik wrote:


"I really don't have the time (or wish) to go into lecturing on Atlas. The  
so called CONDUCTOR SCORE Peters No. 6782 is not a score, it is a set of
instruction for the conductor, which ? to my knowledge ? was never used,  
certainly not by Cage, or everyone working with him."


At Wesleyan, Melvin Strauss conducted using the score; Cage was present  
during a rehearsal and consulted, as were a number of experienced Cage  
performers who were in the orchestra (including Mumma, Neely Bruce, and  
the Arditti Quartet).

"When Cage died in August, I called David Tudor to ask him to perform the  
Carnegie Hall concert with us and expected him to say "Petr ? I didn't  
play the piano in public for 20 years I cannot do it." To my big surprise,  
David said immediately yes! [why did Tudor stopped performing on the piano  
is another matter, which I discovered in the course of our collaborations  
in the last years of his life]. So we did it and an invitation from Berlin  
came right afterwards to do it also there in May, 1993."

Tudor had, prior to Cage's death, already agreed to play the _Concert for  
Piano and Orchestra_ (on piano, with electronics) with Ensemble Modern.  
That performance took place in the Alte Oper, Frankfurt on the 4th of  
September, 1992. Tudor's "giving up the piano" for electronics was never  
absolute; he did continue to play a bit -- Gottschalk with the Cunningham  
Company, for example, and also at least one concert of works by J.M.  
Hauer. He also edited the second volume of piano pieces by Henry Cowell,  
work that included transcription from Cowell's own recordings.


Daniel Wolf