Da Camera Compact Disc, Charles Wuorinen: Ashberyana and Fenton Songs, Released on Naxos American Classics

Houston, TX, April, 2008 – Da Camera of Houston’s second compact disc, featuring the music of American composer Charles Wuorinen, has been released on the Naxos label. Featuring six chamber works by the acclaimed composer and performed by an ensemble of musicians long associated with Da Camera, Charles Wuorinen: Ashberyana and Fenton Songs includes the Da Camera-commissioned Ashberyana for baritone, string quartet, trombone and piano; Fenton Songs I and Fenton Songs II for soprano, violin, cello and piano; Josquiniana for string quartet and the solo piano pieces Praegustatum and Ave Christe of Josquin. The album is released in anticipation of Wuorinen’s 70^th birthday on June 9, 2008.

The musicians on Wuorinen: Ashberyana and Fenton Songs all have long associations with Da Camera of Houston, where pianist Sarah Rothenberg has been artistic director since 1994. The ensemble consists of Lucy Shelton, soprano; Leon Williams, baritone; James Pugh, trombone; the Brentano String Quartet; David Fulmer, violin; Sarah Rothenberg, piano and Alan Feinberg, piano.

“Charles Wuorinen’s music moves us into a universe that can never be simply categorized; he does not paint moods or illustrate,” says Rothenberg. “He is fascinated by what music can do, and this fascination pulls the listener into an unusually concentrated state of listening; one must pay attention. The focus of Wuorinen’s investigations in music is music itself.”

Ashberyana is a setting of four poems from John Ashbery’s collection Wakefulness for baritone, string quartet, trombone and piano. Fenton Songs I and Fenton Songs II offer contrasting poems by James Fenton, ranging from lyrical confessions of love to the horrors of Tiananmen Square. Two personal solo piano pieces – one dedicated to conductor James Levine – and Josquiniana, composed for the Brentano Quartet, complete this compelling portrait of one of today’s most important musical voices.

Charles Wuorinenhas been composing since he was five and he has been a forceful presence on the American musical scene for more than four decades. In 1970, Wuorinen became the youngest composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in music for Time’s Encomium, an electronic composition written on commission from Nonesuch Records. The Pulitzer and the MacArthur Fellowship are just two among many awards, fellowships and other honors to have come his way. Wuorinen has written more than 240 compositions to date. His newest works include Eighth Symphony for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Theologoumenon for James Levine and the MET Orchestra, Spin 5 for Violin and 18 players for Jennifer Koh and Ashberyana, chamber settings of poems by John Ashbery. The 2007-2008 season sees seven Wuorinen premieres: Iridule for oboe and six players; Scherzo a solo for Peter Serkin, Fourth Piano Sonata for Anne Marie McDermott; Heart Shadow, two transcriptions for the reunion of Tashi and a Piano Quintet for Peter Serkin and the Brentano Quartet. Wuorinen’s opera, Haroun and the Sea of Stories based on the novel of Salman Rushdie was premiered by the New York City Opera in 2004.

Sarah Rothenberg has one of the most distinguished and creative careers of her generation. Noted for her “power and introspection” (The New York Times) and “heart, intellect and fabulous technical resource” (Fanfare), she has received international acclaim as solo recitalist and chamber musician, and for the innovative programs that she conceives and directs. Since becoming Artistic Director of Da Camera of Houston in 1994, she has created numerous original performance works, including the celebrated Music and the Literary Imagination series linking music to the works of Proust, Kafka, Mann, Akhmatova and others. A champion of both contemporary music and forgotten works from the past, Ms. Rothenberg performed the American premiere of Fanny Mendelssohn’s virtuosic piano-cycle Das Jahr in 1991. Her recording of Das Jahr for Arabesque Records received the 1996 Best Solo Classical Recording Award from the Association of Independent Recording Companies. In 2006, Ms. Rothenberg made her debut at the prestigious Gilmore Piano Festival as well as debuting as soloist with the Houston Symphony and maestro Hans Graf in a celebratory concert marking the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth.

Founded in 1987, Da Camera of Houston takes its name from the Italian phrase “musica da camera,” which means “music of the room” or “chamber music.” Da Camera brings together leading American and international artists to perform in chamber music and jazz concerts at the Wortham Theater center, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts and The Menil Collection. Da Camera has also brought its programs to New York’s LincolnCenter, to Washington’s KennedyCenter for the Performing Arts and to prestigious concert series across Texas, throughout the country and in Mexico and Europe.

Ashberyana was commissioned in 2004 by Da Camera of Houston to honor Sarah Rothenberg’s tenth anniversary as Artistic Director with funds from Chamber Music America’s Commissioning Program, supported by the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund. Additional support provided by Works and Process at the Guggenheim and the National Endowment for the Arts. The recording was made possible in part by a grant from the Aaron Copland Fun for Music, Inc.

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