Like all of Wuorinen’s music from the past three decades, the duos on this recording take the long view of musical history and align themselves not only with its expressive traditions, but much more importantly, with its secure and sustained future. The spare utterance of those works of the great European tradition that are composed for only two musicians, leave no margin for error: all is exposed when writing for two contrasting instruments. These duos, spanning slightly more than a quarter century of Wuorinen’s oeuvre, never lapse in their intensity and invention. They display an impressive fecundity of sources and outward forms.

Artists

William Anderson (guitar), Joan Forsyth (piano), Wilbur Pauley (bass), Christopher Hall (tuba), Erik Carlson (violin), Michael Caterisano (vibraphone), Eliot Gattegno (alto saxophone), Eric Wubbels (piano), John Ferrari (marimba), Margaret Kampmeier (piano), Thomas Meglioranza (baritone), Robert Aitken (flute), James Avery (piano)