Skylla and Charybdis (Waterhouse)

[1] Skylla und Charybdis is the title of an album of music for piano and strings by Waterhouse including this piece, released by Farao Classics in 2020.

[1] The quartet was notably played, by the same performers as in the premiere, as part of GW60, a concert on 5 November 2022 at the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche in Munich to celebrate the composer's 60th birthday.

[6][7] A reviewer noted in Das Orchester that the four movements, alternating slow and fast, had contrasting elements such as tender explorations of harmonic context ("sanfte Erkundungen harmonischer Kontexte") and moments full of rhythmic energy ("Momente voller rhythmischer Energie"), and imaginative sonorities ("mit großer Klangfantasie").

A reviewer quotes the composer explaining: "Choosing between Scylla and Charybdis is a metaphor which means »opting for the lesser of two evils«.

In my mind the vision of the perilous and deadly Scylla and Charybdis mirrors these and other dilemmas facing composers, where possible danger may lie in store for those siding too closely with one extreme or the other.