5.0 out of 5 stars
Great fun, January 3, 2011
This review is from: Charles Wuorinen: Five (Concerto for Amplified Cello) / Archangel / Archaeopteryx / Hyperion (Audio CD)
Charles Wuorinen has been around for so long that's it's surprising people don't know how good he is. This enjoyable disk has one showpiece and three estimable companion pieces. The showpiece is of course the cello concerto. The amplification is solely for the purpose of matching the instrument to the orchestra: there are no effects added. The concerto is compact and concentrated, while perhaps more approachable than some of Wuorinen's other pieces (of course they're ALL approachable to me). The slow fourth movement is quite lovely, but the second movement (largely reprised in the finale) is the real draw. The overall effect is boisterously jazzy, but not in the hokey way jazz is often used. It's integrated--ebullient--with a flavor that's reminiscent of middle-period Stravinsky. The attentive listener will notice some material that sounds remarkably like the theme from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Whether this is intentional or not is purely a matter of speculation, but there's little that slips by Wuorinen. It's a nice little 'aha' moment.
'Archangel' for bass trombone and string quartet is perhaps the most typical of Wuorinen's pieces: it blazes no new compositional ground (for Wuorinen), but it's nice to hear bass trombone front-and-center. The same solo instrument reappears with a mixed ensemble in 'Archeopterix". This is an active piece with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor. There's a very nice interplay between trombone/tuba and trombone/horns. The album closes with 'Hyperion' for a large mixed chamber group. And old friend once called this sort of music 'maximalist', which is a fair description. It requires some effort by the user, but returns reward equal to that effort.
The players--St. Luke's, Group for Contemporary Music, Fred Sherry and David Taylor--have long sat at the head of the class. Their performances are both technically correct and musically savvy. It's a pity that this CD is out of print. Snatch a copy while you can find one.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
jump Wuorinen's 1970s alltoghether and go directly to the 1987 Cello Concerto, September 19, 2010
This review is from: Charles Wuorinen: Five (Concerto for Amplified Cello) / Archangel / Archaeopteryx / Hyperion (Audio CD)
In fact, I thought I was buying a recording of Charles Wuorinen Concerto for amplified VIOLIN, that Tobias Bröker, the great specialist of the 20th Century Violin Concerto (friends of the violin, check out his site, violinconcerto.de), signalled to me as one of the most interesting and original ones he knew (and he knows them all); but when I received the disc it turned out that Amazon's entry was faultily titled (and the indistinct photo wasn't legible either): what is played here is in fact "Five", a Concerto for Amplified CELLO, written in 1987. Oh well, so it has given me the opportunity to hear that (and I've sent Amazon a product update, so hopefully that'll get fixed). On disc, the amplification aspect isn't striking. I guess it is used on stage so that the cello can compete with the often explosive orchestra. It raises interesting thoughts about how composers will now write not taking in account the acoustic properties and limitations of the instrument, but its recorded sound of it, however artificial the balance may be. But on disc, who cares? Contrary to what is often assumed, a recording is not and needs not be the faithful reproduction of the concert experience; like the art of the actor, it is artifice meant to give the impression or illusion of reality.
Anyway, the composition is not easy-listening, but full of interesting happenings, and ultimately quite rewarding I find. No big romantic melody here - sure, the cello sings (how could it not? But coming to think of it, just go to Xenakis to hear how a cello could not sing but simply make sounds and noises - no criticism implied), but when it does, it is atonal, stern and rather angular melodies. The orchestral support is very busy and intricate, again not melodic and lyrical, sounding very "twelve-tone" in style (I don't know if it is, but in the third movement it certainly seems to be), but the wealth of events always keeps you alert if you are ready to concentrate on it. Highlights are in the first movement with a grim and dogged cello playing almost continuously, including some intriguing quarter-tone slides (these briefly recur in the 3rd and 4th movements) that the liner notes (by the famous critic Tim Page) describes as "almost raga-like in its flavour" - aposite, although it sounds grimmer than any raga I've ever heard (haven't heard them all); and the animated and boisterous second movement and fifth movement/finale (hence the title's "Five"), with something like a syncopated, jazzy beat - but, just as Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane invented free-jazz, Wuorinen has here invented jagged-jazz.
Wuorinen famously refuses to give any explanations about his works or their titles. The listener should simply listen, he says. So no explanations for the titles of the next pieces, all written in the second half of the 1970s. Not that Five is easy, but Archangel for bass trombone and string quartet from 1977, is tougher. The liner notes liken it to "a latter-day expansion of the work of Anton Webern" and, in the seemingly independent, angular and austere lines darting and spurting in every direction, it is. Very typical of the kind of composition that has kept me away from Wuorinen for quite a long time. There is one very striking moment though, at 11:42, with flatter-tongue trombone and quartet playing "ugly" sustained tones "sul ponticello" - and a minute later the piece is over.
Archaeopteryx for Bass Trombone and ten players was written a year after and is much of the same ilk, only more concertante, with a voluble soloist standing out more than he did in the Quintet, against a voluble instrumental ensemble. It is three minutes longer too, and nothing at the end to relieve the ordeal of listening to it. Jump back three years to 1975 and you have Hyperion for ten instruments, now seventeen minutes. Tim Page contends that "the attention and effort can be pleasures in themselves" - and you can see where he's driving at; but when they are so unrewarding, my attention drifts away after a while. Had I listened more attentively surely I would have heard some interesting things in Hyperion. But I had already decided that it was better for me to jump ahead ten years, and skip entirely Wuorinen's 1970s: that way, maybe we can remain on good terms.
I'll copy the cello concerto and sell back the disc, for the few pennies that anybody will care to tender. Now I'll look for the Violin Concerto.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
