Elliott Carter, 1908-2012

[bhodges]

Joe, somehow I permitted the Clarinet Concerto / Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei to depart from our library (must have been Lean Times).  The concerto is not much longer by the clock than the Horn Concerto.

Really enjoying this disc; I don't know why it didn't click with me earlier.  One of life's imponderables.

That's a marvelous Carter disc: very strong works and performances.  And your reaction is a good argument for giving a recording a second (or even third or fourth) chance.  I have done that with a number of Carter recordings that didn't register at first, but after a few hearings...I got it.

--Bruce

[greg]

Joe, somehow I permitted the Clarinet Concerto / Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei to depart from our library (must have been Lean Times). 

oh no, you didn't!
go to the corner, young man, and confess the sin you have committed!

[karlhenning]

We already have the fruits of repentance  0:)

[greg]

We already have the fruits of repentance  0:)

yep  0:)
(Jesus can forgive us all, no matter how many Carter CDs we neglect...  )

[(poco) Sforzando]

Well, now we know who will be playing the Cello Concerto next month:

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Young Fairbanks musician wins Juilliard School Concerto Competition
By Dermot Cole
Staff Writer
Published December 24, 2007

American composer Elliott Carter told an interviewer in 2001 that he wrote the complex score for "Elliott Carter's Cello Concerto" with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in mind.

The New York Times said the piece is "like a soliloquy for cello with orchestral commentary" that features "formidably complex rhythmic writing."

Carter, who just turned 99, is to be honored in February at the Focus! Festival in New York City with performances of his music.

Fairbanksan Dane Johansen, who is a graduate student at Juilliard, has been unanimously selected by a panel of judges to play Elliott Carter's Cello Concerto at the concluding concert of the festival.

Johansen won the Juilliard School Concerto Competition Dec. 14 and is to perform with the Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center, conducted by James Levine, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The cello department at Juilliard has been "pleading for Carter's Cello Concerto as a competition piece," Joel Sachs of Juilliard wrote in the Juilliard Journal Online, but "no conductor had agreed to do it."

In part that is because not many cellists play this concerto. The total has roughly doubled recently because of Johansen and the other students who learned it to enter the Juilliard competition.

The son of Gail and Tony Johansen, Dane said he is very excited at the chance to work with Carter and Levine, two legends in American music. Carter is scheduled to attend rehearsals and the performance.

Johansen is finishing his master's degree in cello performance at Juilliard. He was 16 when he began studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music and has also received training at the National Conservatory in Paris.

He started learning the cello under the instruction of Peggy Swartz, who was one of the first Suzuki Method teachers in Alaska. He also studied in the Fairbanks School of Talent Education, the Fairbanks Youth Orchestras and the public school orchestras.

Has this been mentioned yet?

Saturday, February 2, 2008 Juilliard Orchestra, James Levine, conductor (Peter Jay Sharp Theater)
IVES Three Places in New England
CARTER Cello Concerto
CARTER Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei

Tix are free two weeks in advance.

[karlhenning]

Okay . . . so where's the Peter Jay Sharp Theater?

[ Ah, thank you, Google! ]

[(poco) Sforzando]

Okay . . . so where's the Peter Jay Sharp Theater?

[ Ah, thank you, Google! ]

Juilliard School, Lincoln Center.

[bhodges]

Here's a nice post on the centenaries of Carter and Messiaen on one of my favorite blogs, On an Overgrown Path.  The post's title is culled from liner notes to a recording of guitar music by Carter, Cage and Terry Riley.

--Bruce

[Al Moritz]

Joe, somehow I permitted the Clarinet Concerto / Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei to depart from our library (must have been Lean Times).  The concerto is not much longer by the clock than the Horn Concerto.

Really enjoying this disc; I don't know why it didn't click with me earlier.  One of life's imponderables.

But Karl, hadn't you enjoyed the Symphonia live performance by the Boston Symphony 2 or 3 years ago?

[Joe Barron]

But Karl, hadn't you enjoyed the Symphonia live performance by the Boston Symphony 2 or 3 years ago?

Another of life's imponderables, I guess ... 

[paulb]

In Europe he is not, at least not with me.

The modernists in europe know well the genius of Carter, as americans greatest CM composer. Copland is just american folk orchestral, and nothing to do with the CM genre.
Carter is the last of the great CM composers of history with Boulez also inducted into this genre, as we wait for more masterpieces from Boulez.
Europe currently has no CM composers. Pettersson was the last. We could say Schnittke, as he died after P, but Schnittke is slightly more russian than german influences.

[Mark G. Simon]

Paub

Welcome back!! I hope you're well settled in dry house on high ground.

Let me know as soon as you actually listen to Copland's music.

[Joe Barron]

Let me know as soon as you actually listen to Copland's music.

As much I appreciate Paul's comments about Carter, I must disagree about Copland. To me, saying Copland is just American folk is kind of like saying Dvorak is just Czech folk or Borodin is just Russian folk. There is much more to Copland than the cowboy music, and anyway, the use of folk music has a long and venrable tradition in the CM genre.

Welcome back, Paul. And you're right. Mr. Carter is well respected — and frequently played — in Europe.

[paulb]

As much I appreciate Paul's comments about Carter, I must disagree about Copland. To me, saying Copland is just American folk is kind of like saying Dvorak is just Czech folk or Borodin is just Russian folk. There is much more to Copland than the cowboy music, and anyway, the use of folk music has a long and venrable tradition in the CM genre.

Welcome back, Paul. And you're right. Mr. Carter is well respected — and frequently played — in Europe.

Well in fact Dvorak is nothing but czech folk. Borodin russian folk. Grieg offers danish folk but his music rises to the classical genre.
Dvorak has good tone poems, but its folk music. His syms 1-8 are are Dvorak-Beethoven. There's nothing but Beethoven in his syms. the 9th I would say is CM, as its something new to offer. His syms 1-8 you can get in better form in Beethoven.
I could never consider Copland classical music genre. There's too much old folk tunes involved, and he casts images of  landscapes.  Big deal.
Nothing too original. Carter is a  coninuation of Schonberg, but has his own unique universal voice. You can't say Carter is american classical, as you can with Copland.

[Mark G. Simon]

Well in fact Dvorak is nothing but czech folk. Borodin russian folk.

Nothing but folk music? Really? You give the Czech and Russian peasants a lot of credit. To think that they can come up with symphonies and string quartets while sowing their fields, complete with an instinctive grasp of harmony and orchestration. How do they ever manage it?

Grieg offers danish folk but his music rises to the classical genre.

Well, he might have eaten a few danishes, but he preferred to draw from Norwegian music.

[Al Moritz]

Europe currently has no CM composers. Pettersson was the last. We could say Schnittke, as he died after P, but Schnittke is slightly more russian than german influences.

Really, Europe has no classical music composers now? What about giants like Rihm and Ferneyhough?

[Kullervo]

Really, Europe has no classical music composers now? What about giants like Rihm and Ferneyhough?

Well, if they don't impress with 30-second clips they are probably worthless.

[Al Moritz]

Well, if they don't impress with 30-second clips they are probably worthless.

Hehe!

[paulb]

Nothing but folk music? Really? You give the Czech and Russian peasants a lot of credit. To think that they can come up with symphonies and string quartets while sowing their fields, complete with an instinctive grasp of harmony and orchestration. How do they ever manage it?


Well, he might have eaten a few danishes, but he preferred to draw from Norwegian music.

What Dvorak did in syms 1-8 is listen to Beethoven constantly, then rehashed the muisc and slappeda   title, sym 1, sym 2, sym 3, and so forth all the way to #8,.
then came to america and wrote something half decent.
Dvorak scored a   few interesting folk pieces, but all in the romantic style, which to me is nothing too exciting after you hear them once or twice. Whereas Bartok didn't get stuck in any old form, but broke out his hungarian roots and drew inspiration from other great composers.

For instance Bartok adored Shostakovich and thus here was one influence 

Actually it was Stravinsky that made an impact on Bartok. And i do love the many  Hungarian themes that sparkle throughout Bartok's masterpieces, music  still alive with meaning today.

Dvorak is old history.

[paulb]

Really, Europe has no classical music composers now? What about giants like Rihm and Ferneyhough?

Who?
I'll take a  glance, and let you know.
I;'m open to the unexpected, but as you can surmise, skepticism is high. Strong doubts.
CM for me is a  unique genre. Not just anyone can get in, got to have credentials. I exclude much more than include.
You know how this world is, about real substance.
Well this world minus the propaganda, which is flooding this world.