Charles Wuorinen writes virtuosic music for virtuoso performers. He has a profound desire to engage with the listener and with sympathetic performers, and essential to this engagement is a spirit of adventure and fun. Wuorinen�s music, from his earliest pieces through the more recent masterworks, is a body of work as significant as one is likely to encounter. Both Tashi and Fortune were written for the ensemble Tashi, and although the rate at which events unfold in Fortune is more gradual than the relentlessly intense Tashi, the two works share certain concerns and complement each other. Wuorinen seems especially in his element when writing for percussion instruments, as demonstrated here by the rhythmically exciting Percussion Quartet.
