The first movement of John Coriglianos 1995 String Quartet edges out of

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The first movement of John Corigliano’s 1995 String Quartet edges out of silence with a haunting, barely audible moaning, like underwater whale noises. Bits of melody emerge, or attempt to, as the moaning intensifies into wailing and the fragments coalesce into a stark, hymnlike lament. It’s an arresting four minutes. The work goes on to explore a violent Scherzo (“slashing” is Corigliano’s term), a magically evocative Nocturne inspired by the multiplicity of predawn muezzin calls in Fez, Morocco, and a Fugue in which the four musicians play in different tempos, before fading back into the otherworldly silence where it began. The composer’s namesake, the Corigliano Quartet, plays it on an all-contemporary program (!) as part of the UW World Series, alongside Dan Visconti’s Ballads and Broken Rhymes and Adam Silverman’s Corrie Q’s Jigs and Reels. Meany Hall, UW campus, 543-4880, www.uwworldseries.org. $20–$33. 8 p.m. GAVIN BORCHERT Thu., May 22, 8 p.m., 2008