Pianist Margaret Leng Tan returns for a performance of one of John Cage’s most important works, Sonatas and Interludes (1946 – 48). Percussive and rhythmic, Sonatas and Interludes is a collection of twenty pieces – sixteen sonatas and four more freely structured interludes – composed for prepared piano, a Cagean innovation that uses screws, bolts, pieces of rubber and plastic, to reimagine the piano as an orchestra of percussive sounds. Inspired by Indian philosophy and music, the aim of the pieces is to express the eight permanent emotions of the rasa Indian tradition. Preview some audio of Margaret performing the work here.