ABSTRACT
Following his return to America in the autumn of 1949, Cage missed no opportunity to promote the music of his younger colleague. One such possibility presented itself as early as December that year, when after meeting with a member of the Salabert Company, he was able to write to Boulez raising the prospect of publication of the Sonata for Two Pianos.1 Tantalisingly, nothing came of this proposal, and the Sonata was subsequently withdrawn by the composer. The following year, having been informed of Boulez’s forthcoming trip to South America with the Renaud-Barrault Company, Cage entered into a protracted and ultimately unsuccessful series of negotiations to bring him to New York for a series of concerts and lectures. Undeterred by this failure, in a letter of 18 December 1950, Cage, after enthusing about the American première of the Second Sonata, delivered the news that David Tudor was planning a recording of the work. In the same letter he expressed the hope of arranging a performance of the Livre pour Quatuor, and of an associated invitation to Boulez to visit New York the following year.2
