John Cage and David Tudor in Concert in San Francisco, Jan. 16, 1965

Recorded by KPFA Radio on the 39th birthday of David Tudor, this historic concert with John Cage thundered through the halls of the sculpture court of the San Francisco Museum of Art before a capacity audience that included the late Darius Milhaud in his wheelchair and other Bay Area arts dignitaries. The volume levels were raucous and the medium of live electronic music never more vibrant. Opening with a work performed on a single cymbal with contact microphones agitated by a wide gamut of objects, and concluding with “Variations IV” in which loudspeakers outside the performance space in various hallways interacted with speakers next to the audience, this was truly an affair to remember. Our thanks to the John Cage Trust, C.F. Peters Music Publishing, Christian Wolff and the Estate of David Tudor for their cooperation in allowing us to revive this long-lost audio document.