The story of how composers Morton Feldman and John Cage met is now famous: in 1950, feeling dismayed by an audience’s discourteous reaction to Anton Webern’s Symphony, Op. 21 at a New York Philharmonic performance, Feldman decided to leave the concert. In the lobby he encountered Cage, who was there for the same reason.
Now they know how many cacti it takes to fill the Albert Hall. Last night’s marathon John Cage Prom finished up, over three hours after it had started, with a wonderfully cactus-heavy performance of Branches (1976).
