Search - Richard Edward Wilson, Chicago String Quartet :: Richard Wilson: String Quartets Nos. 3 & 4; Canzona

Tough Music, but It Has Its Rewards

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 04/28/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As I've grown older I have noticed a tendency for my ears to get lazy (I can imagine Charles Ives uttering an oath at that notion) and I've vowed to keep them active by listening, really listening, to new music. Some days I want nothing more than to listen to Brahms chamber music. And that's fine. But other days my ears want an adventure. Hence this disc. I'd never heard of Richard Wilson before, nor heard any of his music. From the CD booklet I learn that he is chairman of the Music Department at Vassar College and composer-in-residence of the American Symphony Orchestra (Leon Botstein's group). The first time I listened to these two string quartets, and the piece for horn and quartet, 'Canzona,' they threw me. They made little sense to me. I could hear that an intelligence was working, and I could catch smidgens of melody and hints of form. The second time through the light began to dawn. In the Fourth Quartet, particularly, I began to hear a kind of tunefulness and emotionality that had eluded me before. Specifically I heard this in the movement marked 'Sadly.' It was only afterwards that I read in the booklet that this was dedicated to the composer's long time "representative" who had recently died. Further, the Fourth Quartet, in five movements, seemed to have more rhythmic and textural variety than the earlier quartet. But when I went back to the Third Quartet, for the third time, it began singing to me. It's not as if this is a unique experience for me; I had the exact same experience recently with a symphony of Per Norgard - it made no sense until suddenly it not only made sense, it sang nobly. The Canzona, I must say, has not unlocked its treasures for me yet, but the horn player, Gail Williams, plays spectacularly.As to the Chicago String Quartet, a group new to me, I have nothing but praise. Indeed I want to record their individual names: Joseph Genualdi and Jasmine Lin, violin; Rami Solomonow, viola; Christopher Costanza, cello. I had known Joe Genualdi's playing years ago when he was principal second violin of our Kansas City Philharmonic, and I particularly remember him playing the Tchaikovsky concerto at a run-out concert in a barely heated high-school auditorium; it knocked my socks off. He was a full-steam ahead, full-bore player back then and he doesn't seem to have slacked off any. The others in the quartet were his match. This is a group to watch. So, if new music to the left of Bartók and the right of Shapey or Carter is your delight, this disc is for you. As usual, Albany's engineer and production are first-rate.Scott Morrison"