For many years,
Charles Wuorinen had a longstanding reputation as an academic
modernist, a “composer of unregenerate complexity” (Lebrecht).
Highly prolific, he was the youngest composer to win the Pulitzer
Prize in 1970, and he has received numerous other accolades.
He was one of the founders of the Group for Contemporary Music
in 1962, whose longevity in a world where such organisations
and ensembles come and go like mushrooms is evidenced in its
contribution to part of this recording. Wuorinen has long had
a well-earned reputation for mastery of unconventional instrumental
groupings, but the four chamber works on this disc are all scored
for conventional forces – two string quartets, a string sextet
and a piano quintet. These recordings first appeared on the
Koch International Classics label, so fanatical contemporary
music collectors will need to check their ‘W’ section before
rushing out to buy.
The String Sextet
has the conventional double-trio violin, viola, cello setting
in Wuorinen’s piece, and the performing techniques are also
conventional enough. The piece begins with an enigmatic opening
which crystallises into a kind of serial semi-atonality, simultaneously
alienating and tugging at our sense of logic by exploring well-defined
phrases, moments of unisono, dense contrapuntality and driving
rhythm. The overall effect is of a piece for string quartet
which just became too big and hairy to remain a string quartet,
with all of the 18th and 19th century
associations it holds. It’s not easy, but neither is it entirely
impenetrable. The difficulty is only in the complexity of the
music, which reveals the composer’s mind running at 78 rpm while
we poor mortals are trying to keep up at 33⅓.
The following work,
the Second String Quartet has an unfortunate collapsing
of the stereo soundstage and a somewhat boxier balance. This
is not something one would necessarily notice, but coming hard
on the heals of the Sextet it’s hard to miss. The composer
writes of this piece, “The work is in four connected movements
but each of these has its own slow and fast music, and its own
area of activity and repose; the whole work, therefore, is really
a single large movement.” The moments of repose can be very
beautiful, and there is certainly a potent mix of contrasts,
with rhythmic and tonal violence and angularity living alongside
the more static, suspended moments where pizzicato, tremolo
and flautando techniques are given a chance to weave shapes
out of silence. There are some beautiful moments, like the opening
of the final fourth movement, and some fascinating passages
which seem to rock and tick like clocks – an embodiment of time
passing which, alas, invariably succumbs to the momento mori
of modernist scrubbing.
The Divertimento
for string quartet has, as its name would suggest, lighter
textures and a relatively open sense of cadence and flow. There
are some impressive pizzicati, and some brief Webernesque moments
of musical argument and discourse. Tempo relationships, expanding
pitch relationships and some punchy rhythmic passagework drive
the polyphonic writing to which we are now becoming accustomed.
The welcome addition
of new colours in the Piano Quintet concludes this meaty
programme. There is clever technical content aplenty, but more
usefully the listener’s ear is drawn in by birdsong-like flourishes
from the piano, and relief from the intensity of line and counterpoint
which Wuorinen favours in his string writing. The beauty in
the more restful second movement is present once again, with
the piano adding atmosphere in some moments which to my ear
would serve well as film music. The piano provides quite a groove
in the final movement, and, interestingly, it is once again
a useful little experiment to play the opening chord of the
Sextet immediately after the final chord of the Quintet
– there’s the kernel of a new piece straight away!
I find myself sitting
on the fence a little with this music. I can admire Wuorinen’s
technical virtuosity, but as I get older I increasingly find
less to be more – and most of these pieces are emphatically
more and more and more. Think of the pieces to which you refer
most as pinnacles of musical achievement or of sheer gorgeousness,
and you will probably find that they are based on the simplest
of ideas. If however your follicles are stirred by involved
busyness rather than classical austerity then this will probably
very much be your bag. The performances are certainly characterised
by admirable commitment and technical prowess, though as previously
mentioned the recordings are not invariably wonderful, although
they are always good enough. Wuorinen’s is certainly an uncompromisingly
individual voice, and if you are up for a challenge then you
will certainly find plenty to spar with on this disc.
Dominy Clements
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for reviews of other releases in this series, see the Naxos
American Classics page
for
details 
Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center (Sextet), TASHI (Divertimento), The Group
for Contemporary Music (Quartet, Quintet)
