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Charles WUORINEN (b.1938)
Tashi (1975) [30:57]
Percussion Quartet (1994) [18:25]
Fortune (1979) [18:23]
The Group for Contemporary
Music (Tashi, Fortune), New Jersey Percussion
Ensemble (Quartet)
rec. Recital Hall, State University of New York, Purchase, 13-14 May, 1993 (Tashi);
Theater C, State University of New York, 3 June 1996 (Quartet); Recital Hall,
State University of New York, Purchase, 17 February, 1993 (Fortune)
NAXOS 8.559321 [67:44]
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Three
of Charles Wuorinen’s most interesting chamber works are gathered
here on a single disc – all in recordings previously issued
by Koch International Classics.
Two
of the pieces – Tashi and Fortune – were originally
written for the ensemble called Tashi, a quartet made up of
clarinet, violin, cello and piano. Tashi and Fortune form
the outer panels of this triptych, as it were, with the Percussion
Quartet in the centre.
Tashi is in five movements, designated Movement I, Interlude, Movement
II, interlude and Movement III. There is a an arch-like symmetry
to the work, Movement I being roughly equal in length to Movement
III (7:32 to 7:18 in this performance), the two Interludes
being of very similar length (both come in at 2:44 here) and
Movement II, the central section, is the longest (10:38 in
this performance). Though Tashi is a complex work which
reveals more with successive listenings, it is by no means
forbiddingly inaccessible even at first hearing.
The
first movement of Tashi is full of energy, full of elaborately
worked out counterpoint and intense instrumental dialogue.
The succeeding Interlude is a rather more relaxed affair, though
having clear affinities, in terms of material, with what has
gone before. The central section, Movement II, is particularly
fine, generally quieter, less obviously assertive than Movement
I, often, indeed, quite lyrical with a distinctive, gentle
beauty and a degree of pathos. The second Interlude again picks
up on what has preceded it, sustaining a kind of melancholy
anticipatory calmness before Movement III returns with renewed
energy and propulsion, before settling down, eventually, into
a calmer conclusion. The whole makes gripping listening, both
colourful instrumentally and engaging at intellectual and emotional
levels alike.
The
Percussion Quartet, dedicated to conductor and percussionist
Claire Heldrich, was commissioned by the new Music Consort,
New Jersey Percussion Ensemble and the Percussion Group of
Cincinnati, is in two movements, the first rather longer than
the other. Wuorinen’s work generally has a strong sense of
rhythmic impulse, and that is naturally well to the fore here,
as ever shifting combinations of percussion instruments (which
include timpani, marimbas, vibraphones, tom-toms, bass-drums,
cymbals and much else) emerge and dissolve across a more or
less continuous forward movement or, rather, movements, given
that at several points rhythms are superimposed on one another,
without ever losing a sense of direction. The second movement
begins with approximations to the rhythms of the dance, rhythms
that become less clearly focused in the movement’s middle section,
before emerging again, with a kind of renewed vigour at the
work’s conclusion.
Fortune, commissioned by the City of Bonn for the Beethovenfest of 1980,
is in two movements, equal in length, which carry the titles ‘Before’ and ‘After’.
Since the first comes before the second and the second after
the first, that seems fair enough! But other ironic, mildly
humorous, references are presumably also intended. ‘Before’ begins
with some opening triads slowly and doggedly affirmed, before
quicker, flickering music takes over, at least briefly. The
interplay of tempi, indeed, is one of the most intriguing effects
in this movement, a subtle construction that holds the attention
with no difficulty, for all the relative simplicity of its
materials. The two movements are played continuously, the second
(‘After’) being more obviously muscular, more texturally complex,
more insistent.
The
performances throughout are exemplary and the recorded sound
is all that it needs to be – this is yet another Naxos disc
which anyone with an interest in modern music will want to
hear.
Glyn Pursglove
Naxos American Classics page
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