Of the two audiences that this disc is aimed at—percussion fans and John Cage enthusiasts—it will be the latter who, perhaps, will be most rewarded. What Amadinda have done primarily is to juxtapose the Varese and Chavez works with those of Cage to illustrate the influence and repercussions (no pun intended!) that they have had on that enfant terrible of modern music.
The Hungarian ensemble Amadinda comprises four percussionists (augmented on this disc to five with Zoltan Kocsis on piano and prepared piano in the Varese and Cage items), so with a group of only five players one's suspicion that some recording jiggery-pokery has been employed in Varese's Ionisation for 13 percussionists is immediately aroused, and indeed the sleeve-note confirms that the recording is made up of several layers multi-tracked together. In many ways the complex layers of this work lend themselves to this kind of approach, but when compared with Boulez and the New York Philharmonic's fine account on Sony Classical one misses something of the nervous apprehension one finds only in a conventional performance.
Chavez's Toccata made a considerable impact when it was first performed in 1947, but despite a fine performance from Amadinda it does little to excite me; heard in the context of the Varese and Cage items its traditional approach sounds rather staid and predictable.
The Cage pieces seem to me much more interesting, with the possible exception of 4'33''; does this curiosity really justify a recording, especially when Amadinda impose so fixed a performance on the work, utilizing recordings of everyday sounds such as birds singing, church bells and distant voices, surely closer to the spirit of the piece would have been four minutes 33 seconds of digital silence, with the environmental noises around the listener forming its 'spontaneous' composition? The remaining pieces prove that Cage is capable of writing music that is both approachable and experimental at the same time. Double Music and Amores both stem from Cage's 'oriental' period. His collaboration with Lou Harrison in Double Music is a fascinating exercise in writing two parts completely independent of each other, yet resulting in an end product that sounds remarkably as if it came from one pen. Its hypnotic rhythmic and melodic repetitions coupled with its Gamelan-like percussion sounds certainly have a strange and compelling quality. No less compelling is Amores; two short solos for prepared piano frame two percussion trios, the first for nine tom-toms and a pod rattle, the second for seven woodblocks (MEO's description of the latter as ''like a convocation of teethtappers practising in secret at the other end of the road'' in his review of the Kroumata on BIS/ Conifer seems to say it all). Both Amadinda and Kroumata give persuasive performances of this work; perhaps Kroumata giving a slightly more telling performance with regards dynamics, but choice will ultimately lie in your preference of couplings (Kroumata include works by Jolivet, Lou Harrison and Sandstrom).
Third Construction is a brilliant tour de force, and provides an excellent showcase for the undoubted virtuosity of Amadinda. Here the influences are more 'primitive' than 'oriental' with overtones of tribal rituals and African talking-drums. As the piece progresses through its formal structure of 24 sections, each 24 bars long, Cage creates an impressive and somewhat ecstatic climax. Well worth investigating.'