Sara Filarmonica, Rovereto
Cage-Cunningham: incontri e silenzi
Francesca Aste
Sonatas and Interludes (1948) by John Cage for prepared piano: a tribute to Merce Cunningham through the music of John Cage.
The music for prepared piano was born from Cage's pragmatic need to accompany the dance. Le Sonatas and Interludes (1948) represent one of the tops of this period: listening and performance go beyond the concert dimension, the music represents a continuing evolution performance where every sound sourprise "like walking collecting shells on the beach" (Cage).
Like a natural organism, with an autonomous and mysterious life, Cage's compositions are a continuous experiment and research of compositional methods to make a work unique and unrepeatable, to "hide the beauty", to "free the life of sound" from subjective tastes, to encourage the listening attitude where the modification of oneself comes before the confirmation of one's expectations.
Francesca Aste has approached John Cage's repertoire and thought since 2002, also with several writings published for Alfabeta2 (2012), Hortus musicus (2005), Lo sQuaderno (2008), il Saggiatore musicale (2013), and MusiCage festival (Rovereto, 2012).
A versatile musician, beside her concert activity, she works for musical accompaniment for dance and silent cinema, playing at international festivals including: Festival del Cinema Ritrovato (Cineteca di Bologna), L'ALTRO SUONO festival (Teatro Comunale di Modena), Jecheon Film Festival (Korea, 2006) and Seoul Art Cinema, Reitschule Bern Festival (Bern), Festival du Cinéma Italien of Annecy (France), Bologna Festival (Bologna, 2011), Eterotopie (Mantova Musica).
In 2018 she created the recital The Woos so Wild dedicated to English music, in 2019 she staged Ritratto dell'autore da cucciolo, the lecture-concert about Benjamin Britten with Luca Scarlini (Festival Alterazioni, Milano2019, Società Filarmonica di Trento 2019).