CHARLES WUORINEN (b.1938): Cyclops 2000, A Reliquary for Igor Stravinsky.

Catalogue Number: 04I088

Label: London Sinfonietta

Reference: SINF CD4-2006

Format: CD

Price: $16.98

No Longer Available

Description: Cyclops 2000 is an extended single-movement work with a clear sense of progression, during which a wide diversity of terrain is traversed. Various groupings of instruments emerge from the orchestra and enter into dialogue, lending the work an urgent, discursive character. Typically of Wuorinen, the music is a model of economy and clarity; it is also complex, with constant activity and little in the way of tonal relationships except over very short spans. While undoubtedly challenging (in a good sense) there is never any hint of deliberate obfuscation; to the contrary, the musical argument is always clearly and precisely presented. The perfectly titled Reliquary embeds fragments of music - sketches and drafts of tone-rows really - left behind after Stravinsky's death in a performable work by Wuorinen. It sounds for all the world like late Stravinsky, while incorporating sections in which Wuorinen expands on the material in his own style, which could only be by Wuorinen; while the styles are sufficiently different that there is little doubt as to what is 'Stravinsky realised by Wuorinen' and what is 'Wuorinen composing on themes of Stravinsky' the whole adds up to an eerily collaborative work. The central Lament - Wuorinen's most personal contribution to the piece - is especially potent and moving. London Sinfonietta; Oliver Knussen.

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