Wuorinen's Whirlygig

[snyprrr]

And, yes, that Bagatelle rocks!

What other piano music then? Aren't those two Feinberg discs almost the same (Bridge and Koch)? He seems to have a lot of little album leaf type stuff everywhere, too, no?

[Karl Henning]

Hm, I've not heard the Third Sonata, I don't think. The Blue Bamboula is charming.

[springrite]

About a year after purchasing it, I have finally given this work a spin:

Wuorinen String Sextet.

I put this here instead of the listening thread because if I recalled correctly, it is the work that Karl mentioned while opening this thread. So I gave it a good listen. It is more conservative than I expected (or would have liked?), but the overall experience was not bad. I will listen to it again tonight after a shower and with some tea, on a headphone so as not to be disturbed.

Anything Karl loves deserves at least that.

[snyprrr]

About a year after purchasing it, I have finally given this work a spin:

Wuorinen String Sextet.

I put this here instead of the listening thread because if I recalled correctly, it is the work that Karl mentioned while opening this thread. So I gave it a good listen. It is more conservative than I expected (or would have liked?), but the overall experience was not bad. I will listen to it again tonight after a shower and with some tea, on a headphone so as not to be disturbed.

Anything Karl loves deserves at least that.

It's the model of economic serialism, very neat and trimmed and Uptown, Schoenbergian to be sure.

[Karl Henning]

Dudes!

[snyprrr]

Ha, 'Wuorinen' in the Search comes up with "Did you mean... whoring?"


Anyhow, I'm prepping for a Wuorinen String Quartet Analiz...bwah! , I mean, SQs 1-3,...

No.1 (1971; Music & Arts)

No.2 (1979; Koch Int'l)

No.3 (1987; NewWorld)

I already know that 1 & 2 both begin with a Feldman-meets-ragtime kind of shuffle, so, it'll be interesting how many features carry over. I'm more thinking No.2 will be the one I like best, due to its vintage.

Karl?

[Karl Henning]

I'm in.

[San Antone]

I am not certain if I own or have access to all three quartets; which I will need to rectify in any event.  But, I too will join in a Wuorinen quartetiad.



EDIT: After checking I do have all three and in fact two different recordings of #1.  I love the beginning of that one.

[snyprrr]

two different recordings of #1.  I love the beginning of that one.

No.1 Yea, ok, the beginning's cool, and the very end of the 3rd movement, when it all gets motoric,... but, generally, I never liked this piece, then I kind of liked it,... and today, I just didn't like it much at all (obviously I got it for the Babbitt). To me, it's just bust busy and kind of noisy and aggressive in a 1971 type of way,... it IS the very antipode of the Babbitt.

No.2 seems to start right where No.1 leaves off. The same nervous motor energy is there, after the cute Feldman-meets-shuffle introduction. I was starting to think this was my least favorite of the 'Golden Era' works around the late '70s-'80s, but, by the end, it had acquired quite a luminescent quality, a string of DNA rotating around and around.

Still, busyness (business) seems to be a hallmark of his work. This one, however, is very polished, unlike what I feel is a very raw quality to No.1 that I just don't like. After hearing most all of his other Chamber Music first, I'm kind of taken aback by the homogenous quality of his SQ here. It reminds me a bit of his String Sextet, too, though, that one maybe handles the string sonorities to a fuller extent, so that I don't feel like I'm missing something. I'm sure the 2nd will grow on me, but I think I'm just about done with No.1 (seriously, as a whole I just don't like it,... maybe the old recording is too dry?).

Hopefully, No.3 arrives tomorrow. I've never heard it. I'm going to assume it starts with the same type of loping figure that starts the previous two? (kind of like 'Happy Trails' by Babbitt, haha)

[PaulSC]

Hopefully, No.3 arrives tomorrow. I've never heard it. I'm going to assume it starts with the same type of loping figure that starts the previous two? (kind of like 'Happy Trails' by Babbitt, haha)

If the incoming disc is the one on New World with SQ3, make some time for the Vn/Pno Sonata - one of his greatest works imo. In SQ3  he's playing with contrasts between chromatic- and diatonic-sounding material, and maybe that gets a bit heavy-handed in places; still good stuff. Without rehearing them back-to-back, I'd pick #2 as my favorite.

[San Antone]

If the incoming disc is the one on New World with SQ3, make some time for the Vn/Pno Sonata - one of his greatest works imo. In SQ3  he's playing with contrasts between chromatic- and diatonic-sounding material, and maybe that gets a bit heavy-handed in places; still good stuff. Without rehearing them back-to-back, I'd pick #2 as my favorite.

I agree, as I said in the WAYLT thread

Wuorinen: Chamber Works: Violin Sonata, Third String Quartet

[asin]B0000030ER[/asin]

Starting with the Violin Sonata, a very fine work and then on to the Third SQ.  A few of us are having a little Wuorinen Whirlygig SQ Festival.

[springrite]

I only have #3 so I will at least play that part...

[Karl Henning]

Hm, I have been remiss, in part in getting stuff loaded onto the portable devices, and in part with fetching quartets in. I have n^os. 1 & 4 readily accessible to-day; and I am somehow sure I have another quartet back at home . . . .

[San Antone]

Hm, I have been remiss, in part in getting stuff loaded onto the portable devices, and in part with fetching quartets in. I have n^os. 1 & 4 readily accessible to-day; and I am somehow sure I have another quartet back at home . . . .

You're right!  It had slipped my mind that there was a 4th SQ, which I have on On Alligators and so will complete the cycle - unless there is a 5th lurking around somewhere.

[Karl Henning]

No.1 Yea, ok, the beginning's cool, and the very end of the 3rd movement, when it all gets motoric,... but, generally, I never liked this piece, then I kind of liked it,... and today, I just didn't like it much at all (obviously I got it for the Babbitt). To me, it's just bust busy and kind of noisy and aggressive in a 1971 type of way[....]

Well, I truly don't know what to tell you, snypsss: I find this piece utterly engaging, and a simple joy to hear.

[Karl Henning]

Indeed, the third movement of the First Quartet (quarter note = 60, Allegramente) strikes me as (if anything) having a sort of Shaker-Loops-before-its-time vibe.

[Karl Henning]

Greg, this disc has the reissue of Garrick Ohlsson playing the Third Piano Concerto, which was the first Wuorinen piece I listened to attentively (followed along in score, in fact).  I never did locate the socks which were on that occasion knocked off.

My take is, the Quartet and Concerto are top-shelf Wuorinen, and the Natural Fantasy for organ and On Alligators are no less than very good.

I had a moderately uncomfortable feeling, Greg, that I was doing On Alligators a disservice, for it is a while since I listened to it.  So, I set myself to hear it again:  A very fine piece, indeed.

[snyprrr]

Indeed, the third movement of the First Quartet (quarter note = 60, Allegramente) strikes me as (if anything) having a sort of Shaker-Loops-before-its-time vibe.

Judging by SQ 1, I didn't know CW had any Minimalism in him. Huh!?! I think those parts are the best/most original bits. Sure, there are some nice octave displacements, but, at least on the old Music&Arts cd (rec. 1971?) the sound is verrry close, which surely highlights any grating harmonies. Do you have the Naxos, a new recording I believe? As I find No.2 a bit aggressive also, but don't have the 'problems' with that one, I might chalk up a good portion to the old recording.

Still, to me, in this recording, there is a dirty, feral, raw feeling that I don't like. I think I had a similar reaction to the Pulitzer winning Husa SQ No.3. AAAAAnyhow... I'd be interested in hearing the Naxos,... who knows?

[snyprrr]

You're right!  It had slipped my mind that there was a 4th SQ, which I have on On Alligators and so will complete the cycle - unless there is a 5th lurking around somewhere.

Yes, I knew there was 4, but I forgot about that Tzadik release. Hmm, is it on YT? Checking...

Still, mail hasn't arrived yet with No.3. I'm chompin' to get outta here too.

If the incoming disc is the one on New World with SQ3, make some time for the Vn/Pno Sonata - one of his greatest works imo. In SQ3  he's playing with contrasts between chromatic- and diatonic-sounding material, and maybe that gets a bit heavy-handed in places; still good stuff. Without rehearing them back-to-back, I'd pick #2 as my favorite.

Yea, I'm probably more interested in the VS.

[Karl Henning]

Judging by SQ 1, I didn't know CW had any Minimalism in him. Huh!?!

Well, repeated-note figures. I don't think the result in Charles's piece is quite minimalist ; )