Open Cage in Reggio: review and pics from Festival Aperto
Il Giornale della Musica, the Italian music review, writes about Open Cage, the recital I played in October 17th in Reggio Emilia for Festival Aperto. Critic Alberto Rigolli follows the path of unusal sounds and describes the
“interesting programme around the figure of John Cage and his aesthetic-acoustic investigations focused on the piano […] a journey marked by four distinct states of the instrument: from the limited timbral-harmonic range characteristic of the toy piano to the intricate soundscape of the prepared piano, from the resonant body explored directly on the sound board—as in the Chinese composer’s tribute to Cage—to the piano returned to what we might call a more traditional use, through a compositional style characterized by an apparently simple linearity.
This is a project that Toniutti has been developing for several years, drawing inspiration from the work of the American compose as a sort of observatory on the piano and its expressive boundaries.
This approach places the transition from one mode to another—in terms of the instrument’s nature and use—at the center of the listening experience. The dry timbre of the “Suite for Toy Piano” introduced a naturally reduced sonic range, in which the instrument’s limitations become a formal and structural principle. The composition proceeds through essential figures and sharp contrasts, and it is precisely the absence of dynamic depth—which is present in the traditional concert piano—that compels the performer to redefine duration, accent, and articulation.
A broader and more in-depth investigation then emerged from the selection of the Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano […] The result is a diversity of sounds that can evoke metallic percussion, wood, membranes, or even sounds lacking an immediately recognizable timbral reference. Toniutti’s interpretation highlighted this differentiation through a touch that made the structures and relationships between the resonances and the various timbral densities clearly discernible.
Tan Dun’s C-A-G-E Fingering for Piano […] introduced a different form of “preparation,” based on direct contact with the sound board. […] Placed after the Cage-inspired pages, the piece demonstrated the historical continuity of an exploration that no longer identifies the piano solely with the mechanism of key control. The performance also revealed a significant and substantial difference: whereas Cage organizes a new vocabulary through a prescribed and prearranged preparation, Tan Dun places greater emphasis on the performer’s action and the immediate relationship between gesture and sonic response.
Finally, the program returned to Cage with In a Landscape, taking the listening experience back toward the sound of the more traditional piano—that is, an unprepared instrument played, precisely, on the keyboard. The piece’s steady line, expansive register, and contemplative character call for uniformity and restraint—qualities that Toniutti brought to the fore through a careful and balanced interpretation of the musical discourse, grounded in the quality of the legato and the careful management of resonances. These qualities were further highlighted by the encore the pianist offered in response to the warm applause from the attentive audience. […]
Below some pictures from the first part of the concert, courtesy of ©Andrea Mazzoni, Festival Aperto, Fondazione I Teatri, Reggio Emilia
