"I freed myself from what I had thought to be freedom." – John Cage

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Boulez, the man who tried to reduce music to grids and sequences, series and schedules. Who composed with mathematical precision. Cage, the man who let music run wild. Who placed composing in the hands of fate. They seem to be two worlds that are miles apart, but in terms of radicality they are virtually identical.

The Brussels Philharmonic combines some intense, compact compositions by Boulez with the unprecedented large form of Cage’s Concerto for Prepared Piano. Music that is now half a century old, but still sounds progressive.

THE BOULEZ-CAGE CORRESPONDENCE

At first glance, Pierre Boulez and John Cage have rather irreconcilable visions of their profession. But this did not prevent these two pillars of the avant-garde from instantly clicking when they first met in Paris in 1949. In an intense correspondence, they shared their ideas and acted as each other’s sounding board, but they also simply talked about their holiday plans.

“Keep me posted on your experiments,” Boulez wrote to Cage. “Our [American] music sounds rather weak. In reality, you are the only one who interests me,” he replied – only to give an update on his own work afterwards. They are fascinating contemporary documents in which two icons reflect on their own creations and on the cultural circles in which they work. A unique look into the minds of the two greats and at their particular visions of composing.