Start with the Variations
I'm not sure what the previous reviewer is saying, but I do like George Rochberg a lot. The Transcendental Variations here are an excellent place to begin an exploration of Rockberg's musical output, which varies all over the place in terms of style, sensibility and (in my opinion) musical quality. These Varations, scored here for string orchestra, originally made up the final movement of the composer's Third String Quartet, recorded for Nonesuch circa 1972 or 73. This marked the composer's dramatic break with the modernist, atonal, academic idiom, and was accompanied by a sort of artistic manifesto (published in the liner notes) which looks mighty prescient from today's vantage point. The Variations themselves are quite lush and Romantic and harken back to Mahler, to my ear. Recommended.
