Giulia Ballaré’s Performance of Early John Cage

This morning the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts released its latest Omni on-Location video. This is a solo guitar performance by Giulia Ballaré playing her own transcription of “In a Landscape,” one of the early solo piano compositions by John Cage. In Steffen Schleiermacher’s eighteen-CD account of performances of all of Cage’s compositions for solo piano, this piece was included in a collection entitled Hommage á Satie. Cage was very much taken by the engaging simplicity of Satie’s music; and the simplicity of “In a Landscape” acknowledges his debt to that composer.

Giulia Ballaré playing “In a Landscape” in a landscape setting

By the same count, that simplicity also lends itself to a “bare bones” melodic line which can be expressed by a solo guitar in the same spirit of the original piano version. Ballaré clearly appreciated that simplicity, and its clarity shimmers in the video work captured by Pauline Gauthey. The same can be said for the video being captured in an outdoor setting (as can be seen above), reminding those familiar with Cage that he was as interested in the natural world as in the musical one.