"Charles Wuorinen (b. 1938, New York) is one of the world's leading composers. His compositions encompass every form and medium, including works for orchestra, chamber ensemble soloists, ballet and the stage. Wuorinen has been described as a 'maximalist', writing music luxuriant with events, lyrics and expressive, strikingly dramatic. His works are characterized by powerful harmonies and elegant craftsmanship, offering at once a link to the music of the past and a vision of a rich musical future. As composer, conductor and pianist Wuorinen has worked with some of the world's finest performers and his music reflects the great virtuosity of his collaborators." (Biography from the liner notes.)
"I composed my fourth string quartet during 1999, for the Brentano Quartet, with whom I had had previous happy associations; the piece was commissioned by a consortium of chamber music presenters. At somewhat over twenty minutes playing time, the quartet's single movement necessarily involves a wide variety of attitudes, gestures, textures and speeds. But overall one can detect a directed progress from slower to faster, from sparer to denser - although with many detours - and finally to a kind of repose. Stasis is not victorious, however, for the work ends (some might say) with the musical analogue of a question.
"I completed 'Natural Fantasy' in 1985 in response to a commission from the American organist David Shuler. The composition of the piece was strongly affected by my then-recent engagement with the work of Benoit Mandelbrot, and the profound connection of music to the world of fractals is the underlying theme. Technical details would be burdensome to explore, but it is easy enough to describe the work's basic principles: strands of the polyphony that generate the piece have a 'statistical' character - not that any detail is other than fully chosen, but rather that the gestural shapes that describe the lines are the fundamental units of continuity, and their actual note-content is made to fit the needs of the shape. This turn my otherwise constant way of working on its head, for in all other works of mine, the note or pitch-class content has absolute priority over all other dimensions of a composition. In this sense, then, the 'Natural Fantasy' is unique in my catalogue." (Charles Wuorinen. From the liner notes.)
1. On Alligators
2. Fourth String Quartet
3. Natural Fantasy
4. Third Piano Concerto: I. Allegro Giusto
5. Third Piano Concerto: II. ♩ = 52
6. Third Piano Concerto: III. ♩ = 96
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