Joanna Mac Gregor, spotlit at her piano; the face of John Cage, smiling and laughing, projected on a screen; the clipped utterance of the prepared piano; the disembodied sounds from the loudspeakers; these simultaneous occurrences remained stubbornly disparate and their simultaneity could not be classified as music or film or theatre.
Five selections from Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano were interspersed with pieces for prepared piano and tape by Django Bates, Andrew Toovey and Deirdre Gribbin, which merely blurred the more individual inventions of Cage. Following on without any significant break were pieces by Talvin Singh, Kathy Hinde and Stephen Montague, accompanied by a projections of images of water by Kathy Hinde. The total effect was soporific.
During the interval, pieces by Howard Skempton, Philip Glass and Steve Reich were performed in the foyer. Those who didn't stay in the crowded foyer, missed them.
The second half opened with Cage's Imaginary Landscape No.1 for electronics, piano and percussion, performed with carefree dedication by the Crash Ensemble, but without much fire. Joanna Mac Gregor returned for Cage's Water Music, a fun piece for piano, radio, whistles, water containers, a deck of cards, a piece of wood, objects for preparing a piano, and a projection of the mostly verbal score. Reading it provided at least half the fun.
Finally there was Frederick Rzewski's Les Moutons de Panurge, a grossly repetitive work which is mind-numbingly boring. The 11 instrumentalists appeared to be enjoying it but some of the audience began to leave before the end. Perhaps it was the composer's intention that they should all follow each other into the night, like Punurge's sheep.
