John Tilbury : John Cage, Samuel Beckett & improvisations
By VNMS on January 26, 2006 - 5:48pm
John Tilbury (UK)
Saturday, 28 January 2006 – 8pm
Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St.
$15 / $10
Chance and interpretation shape an evening of solo avante-garde, experimental and improvised musics, performed by iconic pianist and improvisor, John Tilbury.
"There is, nothing...in my head...I open and close...I start again"(from Cascando).
In concert with his own pre-recorded voice, Tilbury performs piano accompaniment to Samuel Beckett’s radio play Cascando. The piano reflects on the two voices, mirroring the narration, Tilbury echoing the spoken words with repetition and "obsessive dischords".
With John Cage’s Solo for Piano the interpreter is an extension of the composition; he is as much an instrument through which the piece is played as the piano itself. Often described as "Britain’s David Tudor", Tilbury delivers masterful interpretations of the legendary composer’s works.
[A] mesmerising interpreter of Cage...the sound itself is beautiful, an oscillation between fragility and strength that never threatens for even a second to fall into the banal prison of audiophiliac, New Age beauty. Captured in acoustic space, the notes hang and disperse in an air that becomes cloudy with fading sound. Muted and soft edged, they are located exactly the right distance to make us feel we are sharing the space with the piano. - David Toop.
