Rows and tones.

"A Serialist Island Thrives in a Sea of Minimalism"
The New York Times, January 28, 2007

An article about composer Charles Wuorinen, whose recent orchestral works have found a powerful, enthusiastic champion in conductor James Levine.

Theologoumenon, the symphonic poem premiered by Levine and the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall exactly two weeks ago, is indicative of the level at which Wuorinen continues to create. A restless, occasionally eruptive 21-minute orchestral meditation with especially fine writing for percussion, this was one of the composer's most unambiguously beautiful creations. ("Beautiful" was precisely the word Levine chose to describe the piece in our interview, too.) The ending, in which descending instrumental strands gather into a cluster of shivering overtones, then descend through a whole-tone transition into a radiant G-major triad that fades into silence, was breathtaking. The concert also included magisterial accounts of Brahms's Symphony No. 3 and Beethoven's Violin Concerto; you can read Tony Tommasini's perceptive, detailed recap here.

Theologoumenon is the first part of a two-part construction; on February 15, Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra will offer the premiere of a related work, Wuorinen's Eighth Symphony, "Theologoumena." At some point in the future, Levine intends to conjoin the pieces into a single, 50-minute span, as Wuorinen intended.

A few tantalizing prospects loom ahead closer to home. On April 5, Jeffrey Milarsky will lead the combined percussion sections of the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School in Wuorinen's Percussion Symphony, an amazing piece that's seldom performed since it requires 24 players and a massive complement of "furniture," as Wuorinen put it. The piece consists of three large movements arranged in a traditional fast-slow-fast order, separated by two haunting transcriptions of a Vergine bella setting by Guillaume Dufay. The concert will be held in the Manhattan School's Borden Auditorium at 7:30pm (details), and repeated at Alice Tully Hall on April 16 at 8pm (details).

And on April 14, the dynamic violinist Jennifer Koh will be featured in the premiere of Wuorinen's Spin 5 at the Miller Theatre (details). Brad Lubman will lead the Perspectives Ensemble in this concert, which marks the second year of Miller's "Pocket Concertos" commissioning project. Also on the program are a cello concerto by Huang Ruo, a clarinet concerto by Anthony Davis and a piano concerto by Sebastian Currier.

Playlist:

Grateful Dead - Spirit of '76 (Grateful Dead/Rhino)

Type O Negative - Dead Again (SPV, out on March 13)

Tristan Murail - Winter Fragments; Unanswered Questions; Ethers; Feuilles à travers les cloches; Le Lac - Erin Lesser, Argento Chamber Ensemble/Michel Galante (Aeon)

Victor Krauss - II (Back Porch)

Brad Shepik - Places You Go (Songlines)

Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 2 - London Philharmonic/Eugen Jochum (EMI Classics)

Ennio Morricone - 50 Movie Theme Hits (Cooking Vinyl)

Charles Wuorinen - Percussion Symphony - New Jersey Percussion Ensemble/Charles Wuorinen (Nonesuch)

Comments

[Brian Olewnick]

Steve,

You're aware of the organ program at St. Thomas Church on 2/11, I trust?

Iannis Xenakis – Gmeeoorh
Brian Ferneyhough - Sieben Sterne
Milton Babbitt - Manifold Music
Charles Wuorinen - Natural Fantasy

[Steve Smith]

Oh, my, yes. In fact, I just reviewed last night's St. Thomas concert of the complete Ligeti and Jonathan Harvey organ works. The Harvey was interesting, but the Ligeti was otherworldly.