Elliott Carter, 1908-2012

[springrite]

The Carter I've been exploring is In Sleep, In Thunder on the above CD. It's a piece which seems to grow on me, gets more interesting each time I go back to it.

Two of my favorite Carter works!

[CRCulver]

I have also been on a Carter binge recently, including the Fourth String Quartet which I had never managed to crack before.

Around the 100th birthday celebration, anti-atonal ideologues claimed that people were only interested in Carter because of his longevity, and interest in his music would swiftly fade after his death. I'm happy to see from the replies here that this isn't quite the case.

[Maestro267]

I love seeing people like that be proved wrong. Idiots.

[Leo K.]

I'm listening to his 1st String Quartet this morning it is such a refreshing work and it does sound revelatory in it's conception as it progresses with this feeling of changing meter or the ebb and flow of the meter.

[Symphonic Addict]

Carter's Three Occasions for Orchestra is one of the greatest things I've heard. Wow. (Conducted by Oliver Knussen)

The other day I heard this work, and I must say I did enjoy it. It's rather different from the music I usually listen to. Music to stimulate your brain, and that's precisely been my experience with this composer.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Knussen doing the Symphonia must have been quite something! I saw it here in Madrid (the Spanish National Orchestra conducted by Diego Masson).

Cross-posted from the WAYLTN thread:

But the work on that CD really to hear is the Concerto for Orchestra. I consider that one to be Carter at his greatest, along with the first three quartets. Knussen does a beautiful, well-recorded performance. It was premiered by the NY Phil under Bernstein, whose recording I have been told is insecure and full of inaccuracies. But it has plenty of sweep and power. I've heard it live only once, under Leon Botstein at Carnegie Hall, in a somewhat underpowered and disappointing rendition.

[Maestro267]

Last week I picked up the Pacifica Quartet recordings of Carter's five String Quartets. I'll definitely need to give them a few more listens to digest them more, but good listening so far. I'm currently listening to the 3rd Quartet, where the quartet is divided into two duos which each have contrasting musics superimposed and played simultaneously.

[vers la flamme]

Last week I picked up the Pacifica Quartet recordings of Carter's five String Quartets. I'll definitely need to give them a few more listens to digest them more, but good listening so far. I'm currently listening to the 3rd Quartet, where the quartet is divided into two duos which each have contrasting musics superimposed and played simultaneously.

I found that at the library a few months ago. The 3rd quartet with the duos appealed to me the most. Very intriguing work.

[not edward]

But the work on that CD really to hear is the Concerto for Orchestra. I consider that one to be Carter at his greatest, along with the first three quartets. Knussen does a beautiful, well-recorded performance. It was premiered by the NY Phil under Bernstein, whose recording I have been told is insecure and full of inaccuracies. But it has plenty of sweep and power. I've heard it live only once, under Leon Botstein at Carnegie Hall, in a somewhat underpowered and disappointing rendition.

Necromancing this thread to note that Gielen recorded the Concerto for Orchestra as well, and (without being able to comment on accuracy) I find it comes close to combining the clarity of Knussen and the sweep of Bernstein. Definitely my favourite of the three commercial recordings I know (there's a non-commercial Boulez recording with the NYPO which I've mislaid but was also very fine).

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Last week I picked up the Pacifica Quartet recordings of Carter's five String Quartets.

That's a great set. I heard them perform the 1st Quartet live, it was a blast with all the visual aspects, like the players keeping time individually at different tempi/meters. I remember being amazed that human beings could actually play such music.

[krummholz]

That's a great set. I heard them perform the 1st Quartet live, it was a blast with all the visual aspects, like the players keeping time individually at different tempi/meters. I remember being amazed that human beings could actually play such music.

The 1st Quartet is my favorite of the Carter quartets, though the 2nd is a close second. The 2nd is completely atonal and the choice of specific pitches seems irrelevant, at least to my ears, but the 1st seems in places to hover on the edge of tonality, or at least the organisation of the pitches seems very carefully thought out, to the extent that that final high note in the violins sounds exactly right. Hearing (and seeing) it played live must have been quite an experience!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

The 1st Quartet is my favorite of the Carter quartets, though the 2nd is a close second.

The 1st is my favorite also. I have never got on well with the 2nd - I know it's a critical favorite, but I've found it rather tentative and scattershot, lacking in momentum. (And it's not the performance; I've heard more than one.)

As for the others:

#3 is supposed to be the hardest to listen to, but I took to it immediately - it just sounded so badass, avant-garde and head-banging, how could you not love it?

#4 is a mysterious piece that I became kind of obsessed with a few years ago. As with the 3rd, I think the key is to let it wash over you and don't over-analyze it.

#5 is Carter in more relaxed and friendly mode - a good way to go out.

[vers la flamme]

#3 is supposed to be the hardest to listen to, but I took to it immediately - it just sounded so badass, avant-garde and head-banging, how could you not love it?

My reaction exactly. Oddly, the other four have yet to be fixed in my memory, but the 3rd I found immediately striking.

[Lisztianwagner]

Elliot Carter is a composer I've heard of many times, but I haven't listened to yet: sooner or later, I would like to explore some of his music, at least to get an idea of his musical style.

[krummholz]

The 1st is my favorite also. I have never got on well with the 2nd - I know it's a critical favorite, but I've found it rather tentative and scattershot, lacking in momentum. (And it's not the performance; I've heard more than one.)

As for the others:

#3 is supposed to be the hardest to listen to, but I took to it immediately - it just sounded so badass, avant-garde and head-banging, how could you not love it?

#4 is a mysterious piece that I became kind of obsessed with a few years ago. As with the 3rd, I think the key is to let it wash over you and don't over-analyze it.

#5 is Carter in more relaxed and friendly mode - a good way to go out.

De gustibus, I guess. #3 struck me as so wild and so far out there that I could never make much sense of it. I tried to penetrate the 4th as well, but so far without any success. But it's many years since I heard it, so maybe it's time to reacquaint myself with it (and the 3rd, for that matter).

I really shouldn't say that the 1st is my favorite, period, since I've never heard the 5th. The only performances of the quartets that I've heard is the box set that I have, by the Juilliards, that was recorded before Carter had written the 5th.

[Maestro267]

The superimposition of two different musics in the 3rd Quartet reminded me of some passages of James MacMillan's music where he does something similar. It's so easy to focus on the active, faster music as being the "main" music but sometimes it's good to try and listen beyond that to the slower more in-time music to get a sense of both musics.

[Atriod]

Last week I picked up the Pacifica Quartet recordings of Carter's five String Quartets. I'll definitely need to give them a few more listens to digest them more, but good listening so far. I'm currently listening to the 3rd Quartet, where the quartet is divided into two duos which each have contrasting musics superimposed and played simultaneously.

I think they're among the very finest string quartets from the 20th century. I didn't have much difficulty with the third and fourth. I found some of Zorn's String Quartets much more impenetrable.

[Karl Henning]

[San Antone]

A film made for and premiered at the New York Philharmonic's "Day of Carter" on Saturday, December 13, 2008. The film features Elliott Carter in conversation with composer Steven Stucky.

In four parts on YouTube, here's Part 2 of 4

[Karl Henning]

And, as he mentioned this very piece: