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Also available in this series: AMERICAN CLASSICS

Charles WUORINEN

The Dante Trilogy (Chamber version) The Mission of Virgil The Great Procession The River of Light

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Charles WUORINEN Also available in this series: (b. 1938) The Dante Trilogy The Mission of Virgil (chamber version) (1993) 27:07 1 Prelude 1:16 2 I. Flight from the Three Beasts 2:20 3 II. The Mission of Virgil 5:05 4 III. Limbo [They enter Limbo – Poets – Warriors – Philosophers – Leaving Limbo segue to...] 3:56 5 IV. Paolo and Francesca [Arrival – The Story – Departure] 5:02 6 V. Monsters of the Prime [Geryon – Nimrod – Antaeus] 3:57 7 VI. Satan 1:57 8 VII. Journey through the Center 3:34 The Great Procession (chamber version) (1995) 26:00 9 I. The Seven Lights 3:21 0 Refrain 0:28 ! II. The Elders 2:07 @ III. The Chariot 4:13 # Refrain 0:28 $ IV. The Griffin 5:50 % Refrain 0:27 8.559264 ^ V. The Seven Virtues 2:51 & VI. The Departure 2:22 * Refrain 0:28 ( VII. The Unveiling 3:26 ) The River of Light (chamber version) (1996) 19:03 Tracks 1-8 recorded at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, on 30th March, 1996 Producer and engineer: Judith Sherman • Assistant engineer: Jeanne Velonis Tracks 9-20 recorded live at the Peter Lewis Auditorium, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, on 12th and 13th February, 1999 • Producer and engineer: Jeanne Velonis Published by C.F. Peters Corporation (New York, London, Frankfurt) / BMI 8.559288 Remastered by Scott Hull, New York, on 3rd May, 2007.

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Benjamin Ramirez (percussion) Charles Wuorinen (b. 1938) The Dante Trilogy Benjamin Ramirez, the Acting Principal Timpanist of the National Symphony Orchestra for the 2007-2008 season, was from 1998 Principal Timpanist of the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with Charles Wuorinen wrote The Dante Trilogy between attempt must fail to respect the scope of the poet’s numerous orchestras as a guest, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as the symphonies of San 1993 and 1996 for Peter Martins and the New York City achievement. In describing The Mission of Virgil, Francisco, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis. Benjamin Ramirez currently teaches at the University of Ballet, for whom he had previously written his cello Wuorinen makes a point of letting us know that its Maryland. He has also taught at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Capital University. He holds concerto Five and the Mozart-inspired Delight of the episodes are not meant to be taken as illustrating the degrees from the Juilliard School, Indiana University, and the Curtis Institute of Music. Muses. The three Dante ballets each correspond to one action or even the personalities or archetypes we of the books of the Commedia: The Mission of Virgil to encounter in the Inferno: “Rather, certain isolated Rachel Rudich (flute and piccolo) Inferno, The Great Procession to Purgatorio, and The incidents, relationships, images, remarks, names are River of Light to Paradiso. For practicality’s sake, each made the springboard for a musical fabric which also Rachel Rudich has appeared with the New Music Consort, the Group for Contemporary Music, Speculum Musicae, ballet exists in both chamber and orchestral versions. reflects certain basic aspects of the poem’s word- the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, and the Fromm Players. She has performed at the June in Buffalo The chamber version of The Mission of Virgil is scored structure: its eleven-syllable lines, its three-line stanzas, Festival, the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center at Wellesley College, the Lake Placid Institute, the for two pianos, The Great Procession for six players its rhyme scheme, its obsession with the number seven, Guggenheim Works and Process Series, the Ojai Festival, the Dartington International School in England, and the (flute/piccolo, violin, clarinet/bass clarinet, cello, and so forth.” And of The River of Light: “…the music Fromm Contemporary Music Series at Harvard University. Her awards include the Kreauter Musical Foundation percussion, and piano), and The River of Light for is in no sense narrative, indeed hardly even referential at Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chamber Music, the Artists International Award, appointment to the roster thirteen players (flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet/bass all.” of Affiliate Artists, and recording grants from the NEA, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and the Aaron Copland Fund for clarinet, three percussion, harp, piano, celesta, violin, Although obscurity is not the point either—any Music. She teaches at California Institute of the Arts. viola, cello, contrabass). The chamber version of The more so than in Dante, in spite of the density of the Great Procession was written for the New York New poem—only some of the structural details are Fred Sherry (cello) Music Ensemble on a commission from the Christian immediately apparent, mostly on a grosser scale, but Humann Foundation; the New York City Ballet these can be rather satisfying. Wuorinen picks up on In the vast scope of his recording career, Fred Sherry has been a soloist and “sideman” on hundreds of commercial commissioned the orchestral version. Dante’s frequent use of textual and narrative echoes, and esoteric recordings. Major contributions include recordings of cello concertos by Schoenberg, Wuorinen, In his long composing life, Wuorinen has drawn on that is, specular or mirroring moments. Within the Carter, Davidovsky and Mackey. Recently he has been active with John Zorn on the Tzadik label. He has been an an extremely wide range of intellectual and musical Commedia these round off and contain individual Artist Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1984 and was the Artistic Director from 1988 inspirations, including many from science and literature. cantos, groups of cantos or ideas (for example, the nine to 1992. He is a member of the cello faculty of the Juilliard School, the Mannes College of Music and the Manhattan The Dante Trilogy is among his most ambitious, its circles of Hell dividing into groups of three), and School of Music. source one of the great works of the Western intellectual connect even between books to tie together the entire canon. Almost seven hundred years after its poem (the description of Satan at the end of Inferno Stephen Taylor (oboe) composition, Dante’s Commedia remains one of the being mirrored in that of the Griffin near the end of supreme poetic expressions of Christian culture, mixed Purgatorio). Oboist Stephen Taylor holds the Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III solo oboe chair with the Chamber Music Society of liberally with Classical myth, literature, and history. The Mission of Virgil is a ballet in seven parts with a Lincoln Center. He is also solo oboe with the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the St. This great synthesis in three parts has fired the Prelude, and the third, fourth, and fifth episodes each Luke’s Chamber Ensemble (where he is co-director of chamber music), the American Composers Orchestra, the imaginations of innumerable of the poet’s successors in have three inner divisions. On the largest scale we can New England Bach Festival Orchestra, the renowned contemporary music group Speculum Musicae, and plays as all the arts, inspired in part by what scholar and hear a definite relationship between the Prelude and the co-principal oboe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Trained at the Juilliard School with teachers Lois Wann translator Allen Mandelbaum, commenting on the final episode (track 8), Journey through the Center: that and Robert Bloom, he is a member of its faculty as well as the Yale School of Music, SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Paradiso, calls “the stupendous symbiosis between is, travel toward, and then away from, Hell. Similar Purchase, and the Manhattan School of Music. He plays on a rare Caldwell model Loree oboe. philosophical stringency and poetic technique that is expressions of form linked to the idea of motion occur one of the [poem’s] chief triumphs.” on a smaller scale as well. In the fourth episode (track Charles Wuorinen’s music relates to detail and 5), Paolo and Francesca, short passages in swirling atmosphere, rather than attempting to mirror the whole triplets, marked in the score “Arrival” and “Departure” of Dante’s narrative; the composer knows that any such (and themselves made up of a doubled phrase) flank the

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bulk of the movement (“Story”), which corresponds to building of the Tower of Babel. He and Antaeus (3:17), Curtis Macomber (violin) Francesca’s narrative. The first episode (track 2), The two of the giants guarding the lowest circle of Hell, are Flight from the Three Beasts, is all motion. This is encountered in Canto XXXI. The Antaeus section Curtis Macomber is one of the most versatile soloists/chamber musicians before the public today, equally at home in Dante’s Canto I, in which the Traveler, lost in a dark features many single-pitch tremolos. The sixth episode repertoire from Bach to Babbitt. As a member of the New World String Quartet from 1982-93, he performed in wood, attempts to climb a sunlit hill and is hindered by a (track 7) of The Mission of Virgil is devoted solely to virtually all the important concert series in the United States, as well as touring abroad. He is the violinist of leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf before encountering Satan himself. This episode combines some of the Speculum Musicae and Da Capo, and a founding member of the Apollo Trio. Curtis Macomber is a member of the Virgil. musical details of the three earlier monsters; it too ends chamber music faculty of the Juilliard School, where he earned B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees as a student of The episodes The Mission of Virgil (track 3) and with the foreboding chromatic bass figure. Wuorinen’s Joseph Fuchs. He is also on the violin faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, and has taught at the Tanglewood, Paolo and Francesca involve specific stories-within- music for these monsters suggests not only the initial Taos and Yellow Barn Music Festivals. the-story that make up most of the Commedia. The fear of the Traveler but the irony and even humor with Mission of Virgil relates to Virgil’s narrative of which Dante treats the reader’s encounters with them. Richard Moredock (piano) Beatrice’s arrival in Limbo, where Virgil spends To conclude the ballet, episode seven (track 8) is eternity, to enlist the poet’s help in leading Virgil not only a musical bookend to the Prelude but perhaps a Richard Moredock received a BM from the Oberlin Conservatory and was a teaching fellow at the State University through Hell and Purgatory. The “Story” central section consideration of the relief the two travelers must feel of New York at Stony Brook where he was awarded a MM degree. While finishing postgraduate work at the of the Paolo and Francesca (da Rimini) episode refers after the intensity of the first part of their journey and Juilliard School, he was engaged as a pianist by the New York City Ballet and has assisted in the premières of many to Francesca’s tale of her doomed love for her brother- their curiosity about the further mysteries they will find Wuorinen collaborations with Peter Martins, including Delight of the Muses, Reliquary, The Mission of Virgil and in-law and their murder at the hands of her husband. revealed as they move forward. The River of Light as well as Richard Tanner’s Schoenberg/Wuorinen Variations. Both of these passages show extremely flexible rhythm Whereas in The Mission of Virgil Wuorinen touches and phrase and might suggest a similar choreographic on events and characters from throughout Inferno, the Paul Neubauer (viola) approach, although The Mission of Virgil is relatively second ballet of The Dante Trilogy, The Great calm, while Paolo and Francesca gradually builds to a Procession, is linked mostly to one canto, XXIX of Paul Neubauer balances a solo career with performances as a member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln breathless climax. Purgatorio. The ballet is in seven sections plus a brief Center. At the age of 21, he was the youngest principal string player in the New York Philharmonic’s history. He In Limbo (episode three; track 4), which is Dante’s refrain that occurs four times. The positioning of the has performed with the New York, Los Angeles and Helsinki Philharmonics, National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, Canto IV, Wuorinen divides the movement into five refrains gives the eleven-part work a symmetrical San Francisco and Bournemouth Symphonies, Santa Cecilia and English Chamber and Beethovenhalle orchestras. parts: opening (a stately march) and closing (a feeling of overall shape. Seven and eleven are, of course, both He gave the world première of the revised Bartók Viola Concerto as well as concertos by Tower, Penderecki, suspension) transitions, plus passages for the unbaptized important numbers for Dante. The first five main Picker, Jacob, Lazarof, Suter, Müller-Siemens, Ott and Friedman. He is Music Director of the OK Mozart Festival but virtuous Poets (beginning about 0:24), Warriors sections pertain to the procession itself: the seven great and on the faculty of the Juilliard School. (1:16), and Philosophers (2:15), whose ranks include candelabras probably representing the seven-fold nature Homer and Ovid, Electra and Hector, Aristotle and of God (the Trinity plus four, the number of the world); Christopher Oldfather (piano) Ptolemy. The three central sections are clearly the 24 Elders, authors of the books of the Old delineated by tempo and character. Testament; the two-wheeled Chariot, representing the Christopher Oldfather has devoted himself to the performance of twentieth-century music for more than thirty years. In the fifth episode (track 6), Monsters of the Prime, Church; the Griffin, thought to mean Christ; and the He has participated in innumerable world-première performances, in every possible combination of instruments, in Wuorinen brings together three of the book’s monsters. Seven Virtues, represented by women dancing on either cities all over America. He has been a member of Boston’s Collage New Music since 1979 and New York City’s This episode begins with a falling chromatic scale deep side of the chariot. Much of this Dante took from the Parnassus since 1997. He also appears regularly in Chicago, and as a collaborator has joined singers and in the bass and sharply accented, an early warning of Biblical book of Revelation. The sixth and seventh parts instrumentalists of all kinds in recitals throughout the United States. As a soloist he has appeared with the MET which we had already in the Prelude. This figure are The Departure and The Unveiling—the departure of Chamber Players, the San Francisco Symphony, and Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany. His recording of separates one monster from another. The first, Geryon, the procession, and the lifting of Beatrice’s veil. Elliott Carter’s violin-piano Duo with Robert Mann was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1990. Recently he comes from Canto XVII, where that “effigy of fraud” The opening of the piece is scored for vibes with has collaborated with the conductor Robert Craft, and can be heard on several of his recordings. guards the Hell of the usurers within the seventh level. piano, joined quickly by the other pitched instruments in One musical feature here is a four-pitch cluster in the a short passage reminiscent of The Mission of Virgil highest range of the keyboard. Nimrod (appearing at Prelude. The main body of the movement is in a new 1:43) is the Biblical Giant who sinned by ordering the tempo, the texture complex but the forward motion

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Cameron Grant (piano) deliberate, even march-like. Another brief (ca. 18”) allowed to continue into Paradise. passage of a faster tempo leads to a cadence. Next is the After a final iteration of the refrain comes The The pianist Cameron Grant joined the New York City Ballet in 1984, became a soloist there two years later, and was refrain: no matter where it occurs, the refrain ratchets up Unveiling. The righteous Beatrice has remained veiled appointed pianist of the NYCB orchestra in 1998. In 2004 he appeared in the Emmy Award-winning Live from the energy of the piece for its short passage, about while chastising Dante for various reasons; at the end of Lincoln Center broadcast of New York City Ballet, as well as being invited (along with three other members of twenty-five seconds. One gets the feeling of excitement Canto XXXI the three Theological Virtues, as a body, NYCB), to perform at the Kennedy Center Honors before the President. Cameron Grant was pianist of the Leonardo and anticipation. sing to Beatrice to reveal her mouth to Dante. Along Trio for fifteen years, as well as a member of the Grant-Winn duo-piano team, a duo that was prize winners at the The second episode, The Elders, features linear with her eyes, Beatrice’s mouth is, to the poet, her great Munich Competition and performed concerts in the United States, Canada, and Germany. He has recorded for writing with much direct and implied imitation in beauty, and seeing it thus a high reward. This movement Orion, CRI, CBS, XLNT, Koch lnternational and 4-Tay. fragments and phrases. The movement is about two is unique and has no pairings with other movements of minutes long, with a constant tempo. The Chariot the ballet, although it balances its opposite, The Griffin, Susan Jolles (harp) follows. The meter is a flowing 9/8, which is unique in also a unique movement. The Unveiling also has a clear this piece (9/8 is also the meter of the start of The structure in two parts of equal length, with, at the very The harpist Susan Jolles has been associated with contemporary music since receiving a Fromm Fellowship at Unveiling but the tempo, and effect, are quite different). end of the piece, a very short coda referring back to the Tanglewood in 1963. She was a member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Group for Contemporary The Chariot is divided into two parts, about 2’05” each, refrain. Music, and the Juilliard Ensemble, and has been principal harpist with the American Composers Orchestra since its with each beginning with the piano figure at the start of Wuorinen describes the final ballet of his trilogy, founding. Susan Jolles won the Naumburg Chamber Music Award with the Jubal Trio. She continues to appear in the movement. The second part is not a repeat of the The River of Light, as “reflective of aspects of Dante’s concert with the Jolles Duo, Percussia and other groups. She is an associate harpist with the Metropolitan Opera first, although some of the figures are revisited. cosmology, and on a more mundane level of his Orchestra, and is on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music. After another statement of the refrain, we reach the versification technique. And of course it is suffused with central and longest movement of the ballet, The Griffin, my response to the extraordinary beauties of the poem Alan R. Kay (clarinet) which in the procession pulls the chariot. This is the itself, and what it means to convey.” Wuorinen’s most contemplative and solemn of the episodes. It also treatment of the poem in this ballet is in keeping with The clarinettist Alan R. Kay joined Orpheus in 2002. He was a winner of the C.D. Jackson Award at Tanglewood, a hinges at the middle, where a short tolling chorale is the poet’s evolving approach. Unlike the first two 2002 Presidential Scholars Teachers Award, and the 1989 Young Concert Artists Award with the sextet Hexagon, flanked by brief active passages. The Griffin, part lion, ballets, there is no indication in the score of any specific featured in the film, Debut. A member of the distinguished wind quintet, Windscape, he has travelled through the part eagle, is meant to represent the two-part nature of link between a musical passage and a specific episode in United States and all over the world with that and numerous other ensembles. He also appears regularly with the Christ (man and deity). Paradiso. The piece is a single movement whose Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and with the Mendelssohn, Mirò, and Shanghai String Quartets. He Following the refrain is The Seven Virtues, which is largest structures are delineated by changes in tempo currently teaches at the Manhattan, Hartt and Juilliard schools. cast throughout in 7/8, although the texture is light and and harmonic movement, defined further by flowing, without being locked down to this instrumentation and character. Here are a few things to Tom Kolor (percussion) asymmetrical meter. There is a clear relationship listen for to help clarify the larger form. between this movement and The Seven Lights in tempo, The piece opens with a transparent passage at a Percussionist Tom Kolor specialises in 20th- and 21st-century music, and holds degrees from William Paterson duration, and mood. The Seven Virtues are the three moderate tempo, somewhat piano-heavy but involving University and the Juilliard School. He is currently an adjunct professor at Purchase College and William Paterson Theological Virtues, Faith, Hope, and Love, and the the whole ensemble. The first three sections come University. As a chamber musician, he is a member of Talujon Percussion, Manhattan Sinfonietta, Ensemble 21, four Cardinal Virtues, Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, together as a group, linked by tempo, and each section Sospeso, American Modern Ensemble, Newband, and New Jersey Percussion Ensemble. As a soloist, he has given and Justice. Prudence has three eyes. has a particular timbre, for example the crotales in the dozens of premières by such composers as Milton Babbitt, John Zorn, Wayne Peterson, Tania Léon and Jerome The following movement, The Departure, is linked third part. Kitzke, and has recorded for Bridge, New World, Albany, Capstone, Innova, Wergo, Naxos, CRI, Koch, RCA by tempo, mood, and its position within the symmetry The next two sections are paired: The first is Classics, Tzadik and North/South Consonance. of the whole to The Elders, although in this episode sustained and calm, with a balanced, transparent use of ensemble groupings are more prevalent and there is the ensemble. This is followed by the most intense little of the imitative writing of the earlier movement. music yet at a much faster but closely related tempo. The departure of the procession take place at the start of The next, stand-alone section is the most energetic Canto XXXII, after Dante has been washed clean of the and aggressive music of the piece. It hinges in the memory of sin by the waters of the River Lethe and is middle, following the recurrence of the piano solo

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(echoing from earlier in the piece). Winds and strings oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, and cello, while the piccolo Phillip Bush (piano and celesta) push the action while percussion and piano take brief plays flourishes in the stratosphere. It’s a remarkable virtuosic turns. A tom-tom break at the end of the way to end the piece, and draws together all the energy Since his New York début at the Metropolitan Museum, Phillip Bush has appeared as a recitalist worldwide. In 2001 movement mirrors the piano’s outburst. of the whole trilogy with high and solemn drama. It is he made his Carnegie Hall concerto début with the London Sinfonietta and has also appeared as a soloist with the The next short section has a much slower tempo difficult not to link this particular passage with the end orchestras of Osaka, Houston, and Cincinnati, among others. A much sought-after chamber musician, Bush with a foundation of heavy accents, solemn, dark, and of Paradiso, Dante’s arrival in the Empyrean and the frequently appears at festivals throughout the United States and abroad, and is Music Director of the Chamber ritualistic. This section ushers in a long series of achievement of his heart’s desire. Music Conference at Bennington College. His commitment to contemporary music has earned him grants and passages of a nature more subdued than in the first half awards from the Cary Charitable Trust, Aaron Copland Fund, ASCAP, Chamber Music America, and the NEA. (or so) of the ballet. There is no greater contrast in the Robert Kirzinger piece than between this hushed music and the Paul Carroll (percussion) powerfully majestic final three minutes. Strongly Robert Kirzinger is on the staff of the Boston accented, tolling chords in piano and percussion form a Symphony Orchestra as a writer, editor, and Paul Carroll holds a Doctor of Musical Arts and Masters degree from SUNY Stony Brook where he studied with backdrop for long and lyrical melody in near-unison in pre-concert speaker. He is also a composer. percussion pioneer, Raymond DesRoches. He has performed with such prestigious groups as the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, the Group for Contemporary Music, Ensemble 21 and the Princeton Composer’s Ensemble. He also studied in Copenhagen, Denmark with percussionist, Bent Lylloff through a grant from the Beebe Foundation. Paul Carroll has worked closely with many composers and has had solo percussion pieces dedicated to him including Sit Down, Stand Up by Robert Pollock and Ritual by Peter Zaparinuk. Timothy Cobb (double bass)

Outside of his duties as principal bass of the Met Orchestra and Double Bass Faculty Chair at the Juilliard School, The Group for Contemporary Music the double bassist Timothy Cobb maintains a busy schedule of chamber collaborations and solo appearances. He collaborates frequently with quartets such as the Emerson, Guarneri, Belcea, Leipzig and St. Lawrence, as well as In 1985 The Group for Contemporary Music was awarded a citation from the American Academy and Institute of artists such as Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, James Levine and Christian Zacharias among many others. His Arts and Letters as follows: festival appearances include most of the major American summer festivals such as the Bridgehampton, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Sarasota, Tanglewood among many others. Timothy Cobb can be heard on all Met recordings from “The Group for Contemporary Music, founded in 1962 by Harvey Sollberger and Charles Wuorinen... 1986 as well as a 2003 Grammy-nominated L’Histoire du Soldat with the Harmonie Wind Ensemble of New York changed the musical climate by redefining the standards of performance of knowing, demanding on Koch records. He is a former member of the Chicago Symphony, and serves on the faculties of the Manhattan contemporary composition. It was the first collection of musicians joined in ensemble to present new music School of Music and State University of New York, Purchase, as well as a distinguished artist residency at Lynn exclusively and appropriately, with the necessary preparation, in time and understanding. Today its ideals, University in Boca Raton, Florida, in addition to Juilliard. and its personnel have spawned a population of such groups across the country... wherever the music of our time has its rightful place.” Michael Finn (bassoon)

For four decades, the Group has been central to the American new music scene, and for more than a generation has Michael Finn is frequently heard on national and international tours, and has recorded extensively, with the Orpheus trained or introduced a large number of distinguished musicians. The Group’s primary aim is to present a broad Chamber Orchestra. He was a founding member of Hexagon, a sextet of winds and piano, winners of the Young spectrum of the highest compositional achievements of our time, from the classic works of our century to emerging Concert Artist’s Award. He has been a frequent participant in the Marlboro Music Festival and has appeared on new talents, never bowing to fashions of the moment, but always supporting excellence in composition and several Music from Marlboro tours. He has also served as principal bassoonist with the Mexico City Philharmonic, performance. the Salzburg Bach Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Opera Orchestra of New York. He is a graduate of The Group has recorded for several labels including a series of discs for Naxos focusing on major unrecorded the Juilliard School, and was until recently its Associate Dean and Director of Performance Activities. American chamber music, including works of Milton Babbitt, Jacob Druckman, Morton Feldman, Roger Sessions, Stefan Wolpe, and Charles Wuorinen.

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Also available in this series: AMERICAN CLASSICS

Charles WUORINEN

The Dante Trilogy (Chamber version) The Mission of Virgil The Great Procession The River of Light

8.559321 The Group for Contemporary Music 8.559345 12 CMYK NAXOS Playing Charles Time: 72:10 WUORINEN (b. 1938) International Ltd. Disc made in Canada. Printed and assembled USA. compact disc prohibited. Unauthorised public performance, broadcasting and copying of this All rights in this sound recording, artwork, texts and translations reserved. 8.559345 The Dante Trilogy AMERICAN CLASSICS (Chamber version) In his long composing life, Charles 1-8 The Mission of Virgil (1993) 1 27:07 Wuorinen has drawn on an extremely

wide range of intellectual and musical WUORINEN: 2 9-( The Great Procession (1995) 26:00 inspirations, including many from science ) The River of Light (1996) 3 19:03 and literature. The Dante Trilogy is among his most ambitious compositions, its 1998, 2008 & The Group for Contemporary Music source one of the great works of the Richard Moredock, Piano 1 • Cameron Grant, Piano 1 Western intellectual canon. The three Rachel Rudich, Flute and Piccolo 2, 3 ballets each correspond to one of the 2, 3 Alan R. Kay, Clarinet and Bass Clarinet books of Dante’s Divina Commedia: The The Dante Trilogy Curtis Macomber, Violin 2, 3 • Fred Sherry, Cello 2, 3

2008 Naxos Rights Mission of Virgil to Inferno, The Great Phillip Bush, Piano 2 and Celesta 3 Procession to Purgatorio, and The River of The Dante Trilogy The Dante Tom Kolor and Benjamin Ramirez, Percussion 2, 3 Stephen Taylor, Oboe 3 • Michael Finn, Bassoon 3 Light to Paradiso; although rather than Paul Neubauer, Viola 3 • Timothy Cobb, Double Bass 3 attempting to mirror the whole of Dante’s Susan Jolles, Harp 3 • Christopher Oldfather, Piano 3 narrative, Wuorinen’s music relates to the Paul Carroll, Percussion 3 detail and atmosphere of the books. Oliver Knussen, Conductor 2, 3 This project was made possible with support World Première Recordings 2, 3 from the Aaron Copland Foundation and the Evelyn Sharp Foundation. WUORINEN: A full track list and recording details Special thanks to Mary Sharp Cronson and can be found on page 2 of the booklet Works and Process at the Guggenheim for The Mission of Virgil previously released on making these performances of The Great Koch International Classics in 1998 Procession and The River of Light possible Executive Producer: Howard Stokar www.naxos.com 8.559345 8.559345 Booklet notes: Robert Kirzinger Cover image: Antaeus setting down Dante and Virgil in the last circle of hell by William Blake (1757-1827) (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia / Felton Bequest / The Bridgeman Art Library) NAXOS