Wuorinen's Whirlygig

[Cato]

I am listening to a newish recording (2014) of Wuorinen music, including premiers of two chamber works:

[asin]B00K5PCBIY[/asin]

The work Metagong is very fine.

I never met a gong I didn't like! 

In the old days, Wuorinen was one of the so-called "thorny" or "cerebral" composers (the terms often used against e.g. Roger Sessions ), terms implying such composers would fade away into academic journals, so it is gratifying to see that recordings of Wuorinen are still going strong!

[Karl Henning]

I am listening to a newish recording (2014) of Wuorinen music, including premiers of two chamber works:


OOP on amazon but I am listening on Spotify.  The work Metagong is very fine.

Interested in your thoughts once you've had a chance to listen - I loved the new works.

Yes, Metagong and the Trio for flute, Bass Clarinet & Piano are Charles at the top of his very considerably sharp game!  The entire album is fine;  but the later pieces do show greater assurance of his mastery.  I am inclined to say additionally that the 2008 pieces are strikingly beautiful, in ways superior to the earlier pieces.

[San Antone]

Yes, Metagong and the Trio for flute, Bass Clarinet & Piano are Charles at the top of his very considerably sharp game!  The entire album is fine;  but the later pieces do show greater assurance of his mastery.  I am inclined to say additionally that the 2008 pieces are strikingly beautiful, in ways superior to the earlier pieces.

I agree on both counts.

[Karl Henning]

Curious review (none too new).

[Karl Henning]

No, I didn't half fancy his opinion of the Stravinsky works 

I don't think he had much wit to appreciate Charles's Machault mon chou, either.

[Karl Henning]

Once a fluent, erudite author of program notes, Wuorinen rarely provides them today. "I just don't know what to write anymore," he said. In olden times, when I had a specific compositional method to describe, program notes served a purpose. I had something definite to say, you know, even though it seemed pretty technical to some members of the audience. Now my methods are more general, my solutions more intuitive and local, my preliminary material sparser and sparser, so it is difficult for me to draw any communicable conclusion about what it is that I've done.

"Besides, program notes can do more harm than good" he continued. "I've heard it said that Milton Babbitt's music would never have generated the kind of hostility that it did if he had explained it as the 'yearnings of a passionate soul,' or something like that. Moreover, to describe the methods that a composer used to create a piece may have absolutely nothing to do with the meaning of the piece as a musical experience. There is often a profound difference between what a composition really is and what we think it is when we are making it."

Wuorinen allows that the Fast Fantasy is "just what the title implies: a fantasy based on a big lump of notes, intuitively rhythmed, with some quali­ties of recitative." Like most other celebrated musical fantasies, this one is essentially rhapsodic in form and abounds in pyrotechnical display. From the opening flourish (built around an insistently repeated F note passed, rapid-fire, from instrument to instrument) through the hushed, sus­tained song-like central section, this is a work of charm and unfettered imagination. Particularly effective are the last few bars, when cello and piano join forces to create rich, gonging, multi-textured chords that resound with the authority of conclusion. Yet there is one final surprise in store: As the chords are on the verge of dying out, the cello suddenly scampers off blithely, for an unexpectedly light­hearted ending. The Fast Fantasy is dedicated to Fred Sherry.

-From liner notes to New World CD 385, written by Tim Page ©1990

[snyprrr]

Once a fluent, erudite author of program notes, Wuorinen rarely provides them today. "I just don't know what to write anymore," he said. In olden times, when I had a specific compositional method to describe, program notes served a purpose. I had something definite to say, you know, even though it seemed pretty technical to some members of the audience. Now my methods are more general, my solutions more intuitive and local, my preliminary material sparser and sparser, so it is difficult for me to draw any communicable conclusion about what it is that I've done.

"Besides, program notes can do more harm than good" he continued. "I've heard it said that Milton Babbitt's music would never have generated the kind of hostility that it did if he had explained it as the 'yearnings of a passionate soul,' or something like that. Moreover, to describe the methods that a composer used to create a piece may have absolutely nothing to do with the meaning of the piece as a musical experience. There is often a profound difference between what a composition really is and what we think it is when we are making it."

Wuorinen allows that the Fast Fantasy is "just what the title implies: a fantasy based on a big lump of notes, intuitively rhythmed, with some quali­ties of recitative." Like most other celebrated musical fantasies, this one is essentially rhapsodic in form and abounds in pyrotechnical display. From the opening flourish (built around an insistently repeated F note passed, rapid-fire, from instrument to instrument) through the hushed, sus­tained song-like central section, this is a work of charm and unfettered imagination. Particularly effective are the last few bars, when cello and piano join forces to create rich, gonging, multi-textured chords that resound with the authority of conclusion. Yet there is one final surprise in store: As the chords are on the verge of dying out, the cello suddenly scampers off blithely, for an unexpectedly light­hearted ending. The Fast Fantasy is dedicated to Fred Sherry.

-From liner notes to New World CD 385, written by Tim Page ©1990

ah, that seems to be the only Koch disc I don't have  (w/ 'Fast Fantasy')... Karl, you'd really like the Donald Martino 'Later Works' (Albany) disc by the same general  bunch that does all the Koch discs... DM's last SQ makes one wish they wrote it...

[snyprrr]

nevermind.... listrening to NewWorld now.... 'Fast Fantasy'.... BABBITTminusSESSIONS...this is what's left over? (the wholes produced)

For me, the best thing about TOTAL Serialism (Sessions, Babbitt, Wuorinen) is that we don't usually get sustained high volume assualt, as the procedure sprinkles so many pianissimos in as to negate the bombast possible... at least I hear that with CW,... "mercurial" would be the word... also, Babbitt's Chamber Music, very mercurial... yes, that's the word (OWP)

[lescamil]

For me, the best thing about TOTAL Serialism (Sessions, Babbitt, Wuorinen) is that we don't usually get sustained high volume assualt, as the procedure sprinkles so many pianissimos in as to negate the bombast possible... at least I hear that with CW,... "mercurial" would be the word... also, Babbitt's Chamber Music, very mercurial... yes, that's the word (OWP)

I hardly think that Wuorinen (and maybe Sessions) can be called "total serialists" just based on what I have heard. I could be wrong, though.

[Karl Henning]

Correct: "total serialism" does NOT apply to Wuorinen.

"Mercurial" DOES

[ritter]

I think this imminent release has not been mentioned here:



Contents: Heart Shadow for piano (2005), The Long and The Short for violin solo (1969), Harpsichord Divisions (1966), Violin Variations (1972), Six Pieces  for violin and piano(1977).

[Karl Henning]

I'm interested unreservedly in the latest piece. Curious-but-cautious about the pieces from the '60s.

[snyprrr]

nothing much too exciting there, mm

[Karl Henning]

nothing much too exciting there, mm

Where do you mean?

[Karl Henning]

Third & Fourth Piano Concerti
Genesis
Mass for the Restoration of St Luke's
Archæopteryx
Five
Eighth Symphony
Trio for Bass Instruments
Any of the string quartets, truly

I really could go on . . . .

[Mahlerian]

Curious review (none too new).

The writer thought that Dumbarton Oaks was a throwaway work?  Bizarre.  It's such a lively score.

[Cato]

Archæopteryx

Archaeopteryx RAWKS...in that prehistoric birdlike way!

Not to be forgotten: Grand Bamboula for String Orchestra!!!

https://www.youtube.com/v/zuIRYPwEqu0

[kishnevi]

New release

[ritter]

New release

Most interesting...I was listening recently to Ashberyana (on Naxos, with Da Camara Houston) and really enjoyed it.

But hard as it is to believe, Bridge have outdone themselves with this cover. They go from low to low in this respect...

[snyprrr]

Most interesting...I was listening recently to Ashberyana (on Naxos, with Da Camara Houston) and really enjoyed it.

But hard as it is to believe, Bridge have outdone themselves with this cover. They go from low to low in this respect...

they do seem to specialize in that regard... woof