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CAGE: A Room; 3 Easy Pieces; Dream; 6 Melodies; In a Landscape+

Aaron Larget-Caplan, Adam Levin, g; Sharan Leventhal, v

Stone 8083—54 minutes

Aaron Larget-Caplin and Sharan Leventhal both live in my neck of the woods, the north- east—possibly Mr Levin too. Noting that Cage never wrote for the guitar, Larget-Caplin has resolved to make some suitable arrangements of his piano music, which have been issued by Cage’s publisher, CF Peters. They are very effective, though from time to time I miss the resonance of the piano. The best performances are of the 6 Melodies; Larget-Caplan and Leventhal seem to bring a degree of expression and nuance to the music missing in the earlier solo pieces here. But in the marvelous arrangement of Bacchanale, for two prepared guitars, the raucous sounds of the instruments work very well for this exuberant work. The recording sounds a little harsh to me—as if the microphones are too close to the instruments—but that might appeal to listeners who like their CDs to have a little crossover appeal.

HASKINS
p. 83, April 2019