Composer(s): Wuorinen, Charles
Label: Naxos
Series: American Classics
Genre: Chamber Music; Instrumental
Period: Contemporary
Catalogue No: 8.559694
Barcode: 636943969427
Release Date: 03/2011

WUORINEN, C.: Scherzo / String Quartet No. 1 / Viola Variations / Piano Quintet No. 2 (P. Serkin, L. Martin, Brentano String Quartet)

Charles Wuorinen’s staggeringly prolific output has been remarkably consistent yet tremendously varied. This disc presents the first commercial recordings of three recent pieces, together with the First String Quartet, a watershed work in the composer’s career. Wuorinen’s personal musical language is unabashedly modernist yet imbued with a love of early polyphony, and makes virtuosic demands on the performers. This spritely, sometimes elusive, often ‘maximalist’ music invites multiple interpretations and hearings to reveal the riches deep beneath its sparkling, ever-shifting surface.

Tracklist

Wuorinen, Charles
Serkin, Peter (piano)
1Scherzo10:58
Serkin, Peter (piano)
Macomber, Curtis (violin)
Mills, Jesse (violin)
Martin, Lois (viola)
Sherry, Fred (cello)
2I. quarter note = 6005:53
Macomber, Curtis (violin)
Mills, Jesse (violin)
Martin, Lois (viola)
Sherry, Fred (cello)
3II. [stesso tempo]11:10
Macomber, Curtis (violin)
Mills, Jesse (violin)
Martin, Lois (viola)
Sherry, Fred (cello)
4III. quarter note = 60, Allegramente05:29
Macomber, Curtis (violin)
Mills, Jesse (violin)
Martin, Lois (viola)
Sherry, Fred (cello)
Martin, Lois (viola)
5Viola Variations13:59
Martin, Lois (viola)
Brentano String Quartet (Ensemble)
Serkin, Peter (piano)
6I. quarter note = 12001:38
Brentano String Quartet (Ensemble)
Serkin, Peter (piano)
7II. quarter note = 60-6406:59
Brentano String Quartet (Ensemble)
Serkin, Peter (piano)
8III. half note = 96 (quarter note = 192)02:05
Brentano String Quartet (Ensemble)
Serkin, Peter (piano)
9IV. —11:24
Brentano String Quartet (Ensemble)
Serkin, Peter (piano)
10III. (Resumed)03:03
Brentano String Quartet (Ensemble)
Serkin, Peter (piano)

Total Playing Time: 01:12:38