Meditation in Sound: John Cage

Juris Žvikovs has studied and performed music by the American free thinker and conceptualist John Cage, thus becoming an expert about the composer’s work.  He is one of the few pianists in the world to have learned Cage’s unusual cycle of sonatas and interludes, which a musical critic has dubbed an “extensive masterpiece with a quieted voice.”  The well-known piano has a much more diverse and colourful sound, striking a balance between flowing and ivy-like sounds and harshly stopped and metallic sounds, reminding us of the gamelan orchestra from Bali or the meditatively imperceptible texture of sounds from South-eastern Asia.  The glass-covered atrium of the Rīga Stock Exchange Art Museum and the lighting objects prepared by Roberts Rubīns will create a special atmosphere that will allow the audience to go on a night-time and endless trip together with Cage and Žvikovs.

Programme

John Cage, Sonatas and Interludes

Participants

Juris Žvikovs, prepared piano
Roberts Rubīns, lighting director