Wuorinen's Whirlygig

[snyprrr]

Why have I been thinking about him lately? Is that... gulp, Opera coming out soon?

[snyprrr]

I now have five of the Koch discs devoted to Wuorinen, basically all the Chamber Works that they recorded. I just got the 'Tashi' release, and I found it one of the weaker installments, the work Tashi alone, in Messiaen formation, is 30 minutes of Uptown Serialism that seemed maybe a bit big for the forces involved; very busy, like Schoenberg's Serenade, but twice as busy. I didn't really get this expecting miracles, so I'm not going to be hard on him.

I haven't really concentrated on some of these,... there's New York Notes, the Piano Quintet, the 'Trios' cd,... there's a lot of stuff here, about 25 works, so, when I'm feeling haughty! ...

[PaulSC]

Does that set of disks give you NY Notes in both the instruments-alone version and the version with tape? I know it's available both ways, but I don't recall the labels of each release. Anyway, I much prefer the instruments-alone version. The tape part doesn't offer much beauty on a purely sensory level, and it makes the piece as a whole field oversaturated to me. The relatively transparent instrumental version appeals to me more.

The Violin Sonata with Hudson and Ohlsson is a highlight for me among all CW's chamber music. (I think that Sonata is on a Bridge Records release?)

[Karl Henning]

I didn't really get this expecting miracles, so I'm not going to be hard on him.

Well, Charles will be relieved.

[snyprrr]

Does that set of disks give you NY Notes in both the instruments-alone version and the version with tape? I know it's available both ways, but I don't recall the labels of each release. Anyway, I much prefer the instruments-alone version. The tape part doesn't offer much beauty on a purely sensory level, and it makes the piece as a whole field oversaturated to me. The relatively transparent instrumental version appeals to me more.

The Violin Sonata with Hudson and Ohlsson is a highlight for me among all CW's chamber music. (I think that Sonata is on a Bridge Records release?)

I have the A/E version.

I think the VS is on that NewWorld disc with SQ 3.

Well, Charles will be relieved.

Well, I wasn't expecting the work Tashi to be 30 minutes long...

Wuorinen certainly IS a craftsman, but do you find him transcendental?

[Karl Henning]

I find that Wuorinen is an artist, and that his art is very well made.

[Karl Henning]

. . . I just got the 'Tashi' release, and I found it one of the weaker installments, the work Tashi alone, in Messiaen formation, is 30 minutes of Uptown Serialism that seemed maybe a bit big for the forces involved; very busy, like Schoenberg's Serenade, but twice as busy.

You're nudging me to revisit that piece (I picked up the Naxos reissue of Tashi, some little time ago), snypsss. I don't remember finding it at all objectionable in the way you suggest.

I've found many a Wuorinen piece which I liked straight off.  But there are also pieces which didn't 'take' on one hearing, to which I needed afterwards to return. Nor have I observed any obvious pattern there . . . .

[snyprrr]

I find that Wuorinen is an artist, and that his art is very well made.

fair enough then, I'll agree there

You're nudging me to revisit that piece (I picked up the Naxos reissue of Tashi, some little time ago), snypsss. I don't remember finding it at all objectionable in the way you suggest.

I've found many a Wuorinen piece which I liked straight off.  But there are also pieces which didn't 'take' on one hearing, to which I needed afterwards to return. Nor have I observed any obvious pattern there . . . .

I listened again to Tashi yesterday,...c'mon, you've got to admit... it's the '70s, Stoltzman is in your ear, egging you on to write a Serial Symphony Masterpiece for the Messiaen grouping, and you end up with a veritable tapestry of notes, from beginning to end,... in a way I smiled at its gumption, but I still found it charmingly naive,... I'll give him that it takes a dedicated person to write down all those notes, and pack practically every measure with lots of notes,... mm,... I certainly won't call him clumsy or anything, he has technique and knows how to use it, though, check... oh, the Violin Variations (1972) aren't on your Naxos reissue, are they? Anyhow, that one I might have found a bit 'young' and slightly clumsy sounding, and I did find Tashi a bit... profuse!..., but I like the arc of his growth in the '80s,... like many Composers in the day, the years '87-'93, seem to point to particularly fertile pastures.

I'm rambling, but,,,, anyhow, we continue listening!

I find him like a less lurching Carter, smoother rhythmically. Is that fair? Oh, and he can play, so his music does have that feel going for it (in everything I've heard, now that I'm thinking) of a player leading the proceedings.

But, I mean, there's no 'heart attack' in his music, such as in the Schoenberg String Trio,... Wuorinen's not 'dark' at all, though, he's not 'light' in any sense,... he's 'busy'/'dense', but in a detached and not emotional way?

[Karl Henning]

fair enough then, I'll agree there

I listened again to Tashi yesterday,...c'mon, you've got to admit... it's the '70s, Stoltzman is in your ear, egging you on to write a Serial Symphony Masterpiece for the Messiaen grouping, and you end up with a veritable tapestry of notes, from beginning to end,... in a way I smiled at its gumption, but I still found it charmingly naive,... I'll give him that it takes a dedicated person to write down all those notes, and pack practically every measure with lots of notes,... mm,... I certainly won't call him clumsy or anything, he has technique and knows how to use it, though, check... oh, the Violin Variations (1972) aren't on your Naxos reissue, are they? Anyhow, that one I might have found a bit 'young' and slightly clumsy sounding, and I did find Tashi a bit... profuse!..., but I like the arc of his growth in the '80s,... like many Composers in the day, the years '87-'93, seem to point to particularly fertile pastures.

I'm rambling, but,,,, anyhow, we continue listening!

I find him like a less lurching Carter, smoother rhythmically. Is that fair? Oh, and he can play, so his music does have that feel going for it (in everything I've heard, now that I'm thinking) of a player leading the proceedings.

But, I mean, there's no 'heart attack' in his music, such as in the Schoenberg String Trio,... Wuorinen's not 'dark' at all, though, he's not 'light' in any sense,... he's 'busy'/'dense', but in a detached and not emotional way?

Well, I cannot yet speak properly to Tashi, as I've not been able to return to it (happily, I was engaged in rehearsal of my own music last night).  I find Charles's music active, nervy, athletic, even at a slow tempo.  Schoenberg's music is certainly Romantic (even when not genuinely Expressionistic) than that of Charles.  But I am leery of agreeing to the adjective "unemotional" for his work, unless we acknowledge that (as with the music of Bach) this is a neutral adjective, and in no way any musical defect.

There is no lack of music from the 70s — nor indeed, of music composed since the 70s which seems locked in that era, conceptually — which I find tiresome.  Here, though, is where (just from hearing the music, which strikes a chord for me) Charles stands well out from the pack. Where (to speak figuratively) "the seven dwarfs" give us (yea, give with both hands) dry note-spinning, and the sort of music which provokes the rhetorical question Who Cares If You Write?, in Charles's work I hear exuberance, joy, confidence — the man is a Haydn for our day, I tell ya.

Look, you're a string quartet obsessor, ain'tcha? Have you heard the second and fourth quartets (recordings below)? The Sextet?  I find it hard to imagine (I mean, to imagine someone who, roughly like myself, has ears well open to late-20^th-c. music) hearing these and not responding with (at the least) involuntary toe-tapping.

[asin]B000QQP9IG[/asin]

[asin]B0006SNLJS[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Corrigendum

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[Karl Henning]

Fetched this in via download:

[asin]B004KDO2H0[/asin]

. . . even though I suspect I already have the First Quartet, on one of those Music of Three Decades discs (the risk with these Naxos repackagings). No matter, happy to support the Foundation.

[snyprrr]

I hear exuberance, joy, confidence — the man is a Haydn for our day, I tell ya.

Look, you're a string quartet obsessor, ain'tcha? Have you heard the second and fourth quartets (recordings below)? The Sextet?  I find it hard to imagine (I mean, to imagine someone who, roughly like myself, has ears well open to late-20^th-c. music) hearing these and not responding with (at the least) involuntary toe-tapping.

I'll agree with that first statement then.

Second, I've had that old Babbitt/Wuorinen SQ disc for years, and immediately responded to Babbitt, but rejected CW. Recently, I returned to the SQ 1, and enjoyed it more. I still haven't got the Koch with SQ 2 on it, but it's been on The List forever (the one with Harvey & Petersen). SQ 3, on NewWorld, has also been on The List forever. SQ 4, on the 'Alligator' disc, is a new one, but I'm certainly inclined to play catch up here.

I do have the Piano Quintet and Sextet and agree that his dense florid style is right at home here. Hey, I'm just pokin' fun,... cause after all, he IS the guy 'doing' Brokeback Mountain! Sorry, it's still funny.

[Karl Henning]

The On Alligators CD is entirely oojah-cum-spiff, including as it does the reissue of the Third Piano Concerto.

I'm not the soul to object to the odd poke of fun.  And, while one does find funny what one finds funny . . . I don't see anything particularly chuckliferous about the Brokeback Mtn project.  I have no toothpick in that petit-four . . . .

[Karl Henning]

Time Regained, a fantasy for piano and orchestra
Description: For Peter Serkin and the MET Opera Orchestra, James Levine Music Director and Conductor. Based om materials from Machault to Gibbons.
Instrumentation: 3(Picc)3(EH)3(Bcl)3 4331 T,P(2),Hp,Str, Piano solo
Date: 2008
Duration (mmm:ss): 030:00

Man, what a cool piece this must be. Wonder if Jimmy actually done it, before his health failed . . . .

[snyprrr]

The On Alligators CD is entirely oojah-cum-spiff, including as it does the reissue of the Third Piano Concerto.

I'm not the soul to object to the odd poke of fun.  And, while one does find funny what one finds funny . . . I don't see anything particularly chuckliferous about the Brokeback Mtn project.  I have no toothpick in that petit-four . . . .

The Pup Tent Aria


I was just thinking of an adaptation (Opera?, Film?, Blog?) of the story of Sodom & Gommorah, with, as a centerpiece, the violation of Lot's daughter by the entire city. Although not funny in the extreme, I was wondering how to turn tables and MAKE it funny. Carry On Sodom!!

MAKE it funny Batman!!

[snyprrr]

Listened again to SQ 1, a piece that I just don't like now. Nope. It doesn't help that the old recording is so airtight and claustrophobic. The Sextet is such more of what I enjoy, a particularly well crafted and dense piece running for a perfect 19mins..

[Karl Henning]

Sorry you don't like SQ 1. I certainly do. The Sextet is Tabasco, to be sure.

[snyprrr]

Finally got SQ 2, on the Koch disc. Is that Joplin-meets-Feldman in the beginning ?? Seriously, just listen closely to the intro,... that's funny!! Yea, this piece is fine enough, very different from SQ 1.

Also, the piano Bagatelle (Serkin; Koch) was very nice, actually a bagatelle!, and not something dense that is ironically called a bagatelle. A very nice piece.

So I now have practically all the Koch discs (in their original covers of course, haha),... oh, I went back,... I liked the piece Fortune a whole lot better than Tashi. And I dipped into the 'Trios' album for the Horn Trio,... frankly, the Group for Contemporary Music is just a very good, intelligent group, and all their Koch discs are pretty well the best you're gonna get. I think I have everything except the Wolpe disc,... gotta love Feinberg,... and Hudson and Macomber... Sherry... it just goes on...

I have 27 works by CW!! . all Chamber Music!,... but actually, the Koch discs are all perfectly planned, a real good survey...

ok, enough ellipses, haha

[Karl Henning]

I have 27 works by CW!! . all Chamber Music!,...

The Mass for the Restoration of St Luke's.  (Just saying.)

Oh, and I've revisited Tashi. I just don't know what your quarrel is, with the piece ; )

[Karl Henning]

And, yes, that Bagatelle rocks!