There is a note on the back of this CD of Charles Wuorinen's Six Trios that may be misleading, so it warrants a caveat at the outset: it states, "...his musical career has more in common with Brahms and Beethoven than with any contemporary model," but this is not to say that his music sounds even remotely like them or any of his predecessors. To the contrary, this leading figure of the avant-garde in the 1960s and '70s and celebrated composer of the electronic classic Time's Encomium (1968-1969), has neither yielded to the ...
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There is a note on the back of this CD of Charles Wuorinen's Six Trios that may be misleading, so it warrants a caveat at the outset: it states, "...his musical career has more in common with Brahms and Beethoven than with any contemporary model," but this is not to say that his music sounds even remotely like them or any of his predecessors. To the contrary, this leading figure of the avant-garde in the 1960s and '70s and celebrated composer of the electronic classic Time's Encomium (1968-1969), has neither yielded to the neo-Romantic ricorso nor adopted any of its Epimethean methods. If this collection of trios for various instrumental combinations indicates anything, it shows that Wuorinen's modernist credentials are still valid, his musical principles are uncompromised, and his intellect is undiminished. Yet there is a case to be made for Wuorinen's accessibility, a rare enough quality among composers of serial music but one that has made his works appealing in spite of their complex...
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