David TUDOR
“Music for piano”

2-CD set with recordings by the legendary 20th century avan-tgarde pianist. “With compositions by Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff. David Tudor, pianist – a profession, a vocation, a life. From 1950 until around 1965, David Tudor was the epitome of the pianist who could simply play anything. In fact, David Tudor was no longer a name, but an indication for instrumentation as dozens of pieces were written “for David Tudor”. As early as 1960, after having conquered all of the challenges posed by serial piano music, Tudor began to differentiate between composers who filled him with life and those who left him cold – the focus of his repertory became crystallized. The main criterion for his choices were shaped by the part he would play as interpreter in the composition. He distinguished carefully between having a free choice among prefabricated parts – generally called aleatoric, as for example, Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI (dedicated, as his Klavierstücke V-VIII, to Tudor) – and indeterminate actions. In the first case, they have a tendency to “put me to sleep”, whereby pieces that are less limiting led him to say, “I feel that I’m alive in every part of my consciousness”. The program of these CDs portrays these distinctions.”CD1 : John Cage : “Music for Piano 27…” 1955 (DR 1958) (John Cage- David Tudor), “Music for Piano 22, 21, 26, 36” 1955 (NDR 1956) (David Tudor), “Music for Piano 27, 21, 32, 36” 1955 (RB 1959) (David Tudor), “Variations I” 1958 (DR 1958) (John Cage-David Tudor), “Winter Music” 1957 (WDR 1957) (John Cage-David Tudor). Christian Wolff : “Duo for Pianists I” 1957, Version 1 (RB 1960) (John Cage, David Tudor), “Duo for Pianists I” 1957, Version 2 (RB 1960) (John Cage, David Tudor), Sylvano Bussotti : “Piano Piece for David Tudor III” 1959 (RB 1959) (David Tudor). Morton Feldman: “Piece for Four Pianos” 1957 (Columbia 1959) (David Tudor, Russell Sherman, Edwin Hymovitz, Morton Feldman). CD 2 : John Cage : “Varitations II” 1961 (Sony Music 1967) (David Tudor), “Music for Piano 27, 21, 32, 35, 36” 1955 (HR 1959) (David Tudor), “Music for Piano 21, 22, 26, 29, 34, 36” 1955 (WDR 1959) (David Tudor). Christian Wolff : “Duo for Pianists I” 1957, Version 2 (DR 1963) (John Cage, David Tudor), David Tudor “O-Ton” (DR 1963).