URSULA MAMLOK (b.1923): Music of, Vol. 1 - Concertino for Wind Quintet, String Orchestra and Percussion (Odense Symphony Orchestra; Scott Yoo), 2000 Notes for Piano (Garrick Ohlsson), String Quartet No. 1 (Daedelus String Quartet), Haiku Settings (Tony Arnold [soprano], Claire Chase [flute]), Concerto for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra (Heinz Holliger [oboe], Ensemble SurPlus; James Avery), Designs for Violin and Piano (David Bowlin [violin], Jacob Greenburg [piano]), Woodwind Quintet (Windscape).

Description: The 1956 wind quintet is straightforwardly and elegantly neoclassical, but subsequent works demonstrate a rapid shift away from this idiom toward the dodecaphony of the 1960s works - the tough and tersely organised quartet (significantly, dedicated to Babbitt), the structurally precise Designs and the aphoristic Haiku. The concerto is a virtuoso display work for the soloist, with extensive use of multiphonics and formidable technical demands; although rigorously formally organised there is greater freedom of texture and harmony by this stage, following studies with Wolpe and Shapey. The Concertino goes further still in amalgamating disparate styles, with suggestions of neoclassical organisation underpinning a more lyrical approach to the composer's modernist leanings than in earlier pieces. No texts.