Elliott Carter, 1908-2012

[Joe Barron]

Irony, Mr. Barron. Irony.

Oh, don't call me Mr. Barron. Call me Mr. Joe Barron.

[Guido]

Why is it called Ma-tribute? Is it a tribute to Yo-Yo Ma?

Thans for the concert write up - I assume Cantenaires is not out on CD yet...

[paul]

I'll be playing double bass in this concert coming up. The ASKO Concerto has a very difficult and long double bass and clarinet duo which I've been practicing a lot. If anyone in New York can make it it should be a very good performance.

New Juilliard Ensemble
Joel Sachs, Conductor

FOUR CARTER WORKS
Three Poems of Robert Frost (1980)
Quintet for Piano and winds (1991)
Asko Concerto (2000)
Tempo e tempi (1999)
Asko Concerto (repeat performance)

Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Free; no tickets required.

[Guido]

Just listened to the cello sonata again. I am staggered by it every time. It is for me the greatest cello sonata of the 20th century (And I don't say that lightly, believe me!). I just wish it weren't so bloody difficult - a goal to work towards I suppose.

[Guido]

Oppens playing Carter on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nryKMIvS7SU

Astonishing playing, astonishing piece.

And more brilliant playing here (Enchanted Prelude for flute and cello):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z1N9BLS0B4

[Joe Barron]

Why is it called Ma-tribute? Is it a tribute to Yo-Yo Ma?

Thans for the concert write up - I assume Cantenaires is not out on CD yet...

I believe it's a tribute to James Levine's mother. Also a pun on "attribute," probably.

Paul, I cannot make that particular performance, but I will be at the concerts Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. Will you be any either of those?

Who was Peter Jay Sharp, and why are there so many theaters named after him?

[Joe Barron]

I  don't like posting other writers' reviews, as a rule, but this one is interesting for what Carter says about Oppens near the beginning and for the great news that she is recording the piano music again.


January 19, 2008

Music Review | Ursula Oppens

Capturing Dream States and Unraveling Knots
By ALLAN KOZINN
Nearly 30 years ago, when he was about to celebrate his 70th birthday, I did an interview with Elliott Carter in which we touched on the freighted question of whether a composer can write memorable themes in a difficult modern style. After musing for a moment that certain kinds of art are easier for some listeners than for others, Mr. Carter mentioned that the pianist Ursula Oppens had spoken with him that morning about one of his works she was about to perform.

"She told me, 'I've finally learned all the tunes in your Piano Concerto,' " Mr. Carter said, with a puzzled laugh. "And I said, 'Which tunes are you talking about?' So she whistled one. There you go: I have tunes."

Ms. Oppens has remained an eloquent discoverer and illuminator of tunes in Mr. Carter's music, and on Thursday evening, as a tribute anticipating his 100th birthday (next December), she devoted her recital at Symphony Space to his complete solo piano music.

Well, almost complete. His latest, the four-minute "Matribute" (2007), which has been performed in Europe and had a private reading at Harvard, is apparently out of bounds until James Levine plays its public American premiere at Tanglewood in July. But Ms. Oppens is about to record Mr. Carter's piano music, including "Matribute," for the Cedille label.

Finding tunes is easiest in Mr. Carter's earliest and latest works. The Sonata (1946), composed before his style acquired its full quotient of thorniness, is rich in counterpoint and grand, Lisztian gestures and occasionally slips into an old-fashioned theme. In "Caténaires"(2006), by contrast, Mr. Carter rounded off his style's spikiness, providing a perpetual-motion work that is actually nothing but melody. Its single, rapidly moving line is so involved and full of surprising twists that the ear can't resist following its winding path.

Mostly, though, attractive themes are less crucial to this music than gesture. Often Mr. Carter's works seem crystallizations of animated speech. That is particularly so in the gabbling "90+" (1994), but you hear it as well in the playful "Two Diversions" (1999) and in the juxtapositions of silence and sparkling, pointillistic bursts in "Intermittences" (2005) and "Retrouvailles" (2000). What they all demand, and what Ms. Oppens supplied amply, is the kind of bright timbre and sharp articulation that will keep the sometimes dense textures transparent.

Still, as persuasive as Ms. Oppens was in these short sprints, she was at her best in the 18-minute "Night Fantasies" (1980), the longest and most imaginative of these scores. Mr. Carter captures the variegated flow of an evening's dream states here, touching on extremes of fevered anxiety and poetic reverie. Ms. Oppens played it with an unfailing sense of drama and almost cinematic color.

[bhodges]

I'll be playing double bass in this concert coming up. The ASKO Concerto has a very difficult and long double bass and clarinet duo which I've been practicing a lot. If anyone in New York can make it it should be a very good performance.

New Juilliard Ensemble
Joel Sachs, Conductor

FOUR CARTER WORKS
Three Poems of Robert Frost (1980)
Quintet for Piano and winds (1991)
Asko Concerto (2000)
Tempo e tempi (1999)
Asko Concerto (repeat performance)

Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Free; no tickets required.

Hi paul, and welcome to GMG.  I'll be at that concert, and I imagine a few others here will be, too, given the excellent program.  And good luck with the performance!

--Bruce

[Guido]

Now I don't know whether to wait for Oppen's recording of the more complete piano works, or the Charles Rosen recording... Do we know when Oppen's recording is coming out?

[bhodges]

At the moment, the best I can find is this "Future Releases: Coming in 2008" page on Cedille's site.  Since it's at the end of the list, it might suggest a release later in the year, e.g., maybe closer to Carter's birthday.

--Bruce

[Joe Barron]

At the moment, the best I can find is this "Future Releases: Coming in 2008" page on Cedille's site.  Since it's at the end of the list, it might suggest a release later in the year, e.g., maybe closer to Carter's birthday.

--Bruce

Well, if she can't play Matribute until after Levine does it in July, I figure the release will have to wait at least until then. I hadn't heard Rosen was recording the complete music again. (He already did it once, before some Carter wrote the more recent pieces.)

[not edward]

Well, if she can't play Matribute until after Levine does it in July, I figure the release will have to wait at least until then. I hadn't heard Rosen was recording the complete music again. (He already did it once, before some Carter wrote the more recent pieces.)

How does Rosen's more recent complete recording compare with the Etcetera one that only has the Piano Sonata and Night Fantasies?

I suspect I'll be waiting for Oppens' complete set: I only have her in 90+.

[paulb]

I'll be playing double bass in this concert coming up. The ASKO Concerto has a very difficult and long double bass and clarinet duo which I've been practicing a lot. If anyone in New York can make it it should be a very good performance.

New Juilliard Ensemble
Joel Sachs, Conductor

FOUR CARTER WORKS
Three Poems of Robert Frost (1980)
Quintet for Piano and winds (1991)
Asko Concerto (2000)
Tempo e tempi (1999)
Asko Concerto (repeat performance)

Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Free; no tickets required.

whatever downsides there are to living in/near NYC, its concerts like this all Elliott Carter show that make it worth all the pains and sufferings.
regardless thats its free, I'd pay $$$..$$! if the show  were in New Orleans.
You guys ought to come down and  present a  restore NO benifit concert, we deserve it down here.

btw its been sunny and 70 degrees, so like the ducks come south for the winters

also you guys are about to get super duper slammed with a  monster of a  front. She hit us last night down here all night long, 40+ MPH wind driven rain, she's headed your way, don't put away your snow shovels just yet

[Joe Barron]

How does Rosen's more recent complete recording compare with the Etcetera one that only has the Piano Sonata and Night Fantasies?

The Sonata and Night Fantasies are the same performances as those on the Etcetera recording. The only other piece on the CD is 90+.

The program on the planned Oppens disk, as listed on the Cedille isn't even the complete music, since a new work, Two Thoughts About the Piano, is scheduled for premieres at Tanglewood in July.

[Guido]

He's not re-recording it to my knowledge. I just wondered whether I should wait or not. I have known the piano sonata for a long time, but I haven't yet heard Night Fantasies or 90+. Maybe I'll get both...

I've always liked the piano concerto, but when I was listening late last night, it all just 'clicked' and I realised quite what a brilliant work it was. I really want to hear the double concerto again, having only heard it once live in concert... Do people generally value it even more than the piano concerto?

[paulb]

Night Fantasies is good Carter, 90+ not so much...Rosen's recording of NF is just awesome IMO. A long time fave Carter disc.

I realize Rosen is a  long time close friend of Carter's but his recording of Carter is not "all that excellent", again IMO.

[paulb]

Nonsense paul, listen to it again...they are very exciting, spontaneous sounding & passionate performances....Night Fantasies & the Piano Sonata. Highest recommendations!!!

Up next on the cdp. I really hope i am mistaken, its been some time since. I could very well be mistaken. But if i recall, I actually didn't even make it through the entire cd for some reason. I'm a  tough critic btw...but fair.

...er..can't do it...the cd was dum..I mean sold some time ago. Do i need to reorder for a  sure conviction? Or can I wait for this other Oppens recording due out?

just so we are on the same cd. this is the one i had.
I see another listing on Etcetera?

http://www.amazon.com/Elliott-Carter-Complete-music-Piano/dp/B000003GK2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1200779985&sr=1-1

[paulb]

Yup the one with all the positive reviews there on Amazon, great disc...

I'm not so easily persuaded by the 5 Star reviews on amazon.
For cds and books, especially when i have a  hunch about the book/cd, i always go to the 1,2,3 stars first. To get the real low down. But what do i know, most all my amazon reviews get the "NO , not helpful" button clicked 
The 1st reviewer on the Rosen cd, gives mostly 5 stars to all his reviews. Not too selective if you ask me.
I'll reconsider ordering the cd. But if there is a Oppens due out, or any other pianist  I'll most likely hold off. Besides its not going OOP, I have plenty of time to re-order.

[Joe Barron]

Night Fantasies is good Carter, 90+ not so much...Rosen's recording of NF is just awesome IMO. A long time fave Carter disc.

My own favorite recordings of Night Fantasies so far are by Oppens on a Music and Arts two CD set (CD 862) that includes a lot of other music by contemporary Americans, and by Stephen Drury, who gets overlooked but is as just as good as Oppens and better than everyone else, IMHO. His version can be heard free at artofthestates.com. Try before you buy.

[paulb]

My own favorite recordings of Night Fantasies so far are by Oppens on a Music and Arts two CD set (CD 862) that includes a lot of other music by contemporary Americans, and by Stephen Drury, who gets overlooked but is as just as good as Oppens and better than everyone else, IMHO. His version can be heard free at artofthestates.com. Try before you buy.

Well I did some DD and came up with Aimard, this time I am believeing the 5 star commenst.
So we'll have to see. Recalling Aimard's perforamnce of Boulez's sonata 1, which I placed the Youtube clip on Boulez's forum, I might be in for a satisfying recording. Its on its way.
Joe if you get a  chance list all the late Carter works/yr scored,  which have yet to be issued as a  recording. I think its like 8 or 10?