12-tone rock stars

Daniel Wakin has a delightful article in today's Times about James Levine's Tanglewood performance of "The Soldier's Tale" by Stravinsky, featuring Milton, Elliott, and John. This anecdote, in which Mr. Carter relates his previous experience in the role of the soldier, is especially amusing:

Mr. Carter, who had been a friend of Stravinsky, offered that he had played the soldier before, in a production with Aaron copland as the narrator. John Cage played the Devil, skipped most of the rehearsals and shouted into the microphone at the performance. "He made such a lot of noise!" Mr. Carter said. "John called it the 'Story of the Sold-Out.'"

After the concert, Mr. Carter said, he took Stravinsky to meet Cage, an avant-gardist who dealt heavily in abstractions. Mr. Carter went on: "Stravinsky said to John Cage: 'You're the only sensible composer I know. You don't write notes!'"