It’s the 100th anniversary of John Cage’s birth, and a very few organizations are celebrating with retrospectives of the work of this challenging, odd composer. The festival with the most to offer is the one by sfSound at Old First Concerts. It won’t get a lot of publicity, and in fact is already more than half over. But if you’re interested at all in Cage’s thought-and-music experiments and how they helped us to rethink or at least question fundamental parameters of music, you should try to make one of the remaining concerts.
First up, on August 5, is some of Cage’s most radical music, including a sequel to 4’33”, his famous “silent” piece; several pieces using found objects — Living Room Music (1940), Radio Music (1956), Cartridge Music (1960); plus music for toy pianos, water-filled conch shells, and an improvisatory piece — Unlit Cigarettes (for John Cage) (2012) by sfSound member Christopher Burns.
August 17 brings a more traditional concert, led off by Music of Changes (1951), Cage’s famous early exploration of chance music. Tom Chiu, of the Flux Quartet, performs the virtuosic Freeman Etudes (1977-90), and several of Cage’s most often played works are also scheduled: Atlas Eclipticalis (1964), the Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958), and more.