I have a confession to make. I consider myself to have a pretty open ear and mind for many styles of contemporary music, and even more for the demanding ones than for the conservative ones. And yet, with a few of his peers (Milton Babbitt, sometimes Elliott Carter, Stefan Wolpe, maybe Brian Ferneyhough….), Charles Wuorinen most of the times sounds to me like “ouch!”. Jagged, rough and tough, unseductive, intractable, very much like the caricature of contemporary music at the hands of those who hate contemporary music: sit at the piano and bang on the keyboard at random, and you have your “contemporary music”.
One of the last times I tried was back in 2010, with Koch International Classics 3-7110-2 H1 (1992) barcode 099923711025, with Five-Concerto for Amplified Cello and Orchestra, Archangel for Bass Trombone and String Quartet, Archaeopteryx for Bass Trombone and Ten Players, and Hyperion for 12, and a review that apparently Amazon.com has deleted at some point (I resent it when they do that). Fortunately I kept a copy on the computer and will repost it here.
I did enjoy, though, Grand Bamboula for string orchestra, performed live by the Munich Philharmonic under James Levine, not just because it is short (6:30 minutes), but because it is 6:30 minutes of jagged, rough and tough, but also exuberant and dynamic, rhythmically vital music. It comes on an Oehms CD 0C 502, part of a set documenting Levine’s Munich years, and paired with an outstanding rendition of Elliott Carter’s Variations for Orchestra, Roger Sessions’ Piano Concerto and Robert Di Domenica’s superb Symphony.
I’ll probably try again listening to Wuorinen, if fate grants me enough more years.