Perhaps I missed it, but someone [should] report this program that is also broadcast on Rai Radio3
http://retedue.rsi.c.../john-cage.html
Copy/pasting from the RSI website
Silence on the radio is taboo. It is only permitted to broadcast about fifty seconds of silence, after which the alarm goes off. Consequently, it is forbidden on the radio to broadcast one of the most significant works of the twentieth century: John Cage's composition 4’33’’, in which one or more musicians remain in total silence for the duration indicated by the title. Creating the conditions to broadcast 4’33’’ on the radio means breaking this taboo, defeating the radio horror vacui.
And, if one considers that Cage was probably the first composer to use the radio as a musical instrument (Imaginary Landscape n. 4 for 12 radios from 1951), what better gift to celebrate John Cage's 100th anniversary on the radio?
Radio CHage 4’33’’ is a radio happening that will take place on Wednesday, September 5, 2012, the day of John Cage's centennial birthday. The idea is to perform the composition 4’33’’ – sixty years after its first, legendary performance (1952) – in an outdoor location and broadcast it simultaneously, live, on the radio.
For the realization of this project, a particularly evocative and symbolic location has been chosen: an area near the highway sound barriers designed by architect Mario Botta in Chiasso.
An architecture born from reflection on the noise-silence relationship, in a small town with a symptomatic name: Chiasso! Students from the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, led by architect Riccardo Blumer, will create a sort of open-air auditorium to host the event.
Through 4’33’’, John Cage teaches us to listen to the music of the world that surrounds us, proving, once and for all, that silence does not exist. The choice of the time at which the happening will take place is not only determined by the title of the work. Performing and broadcasting 4’33’’ at 4:33 in the afternoon means creating a hole in the middle of the working day that induces potential listeners to a moment of reflection. Stopping for a moment the deafening noise of daily life with a revolutionary gesture: the ecological silence of John Cage.
