Elliott Carter, 1908-2012

[springrite]

Sounds like fun. I'm glad you were able to work in two clarinet works. 

Actually, three. Forgot to mention a Karl Henning piece featuring the clarinet was also in the mix!

[karlhenning]

Actually, three. Forgot to mention a Karl Henning piece featuring the clarinet was also in the mix!

Honored, I am sure!

[DavidW]

On the radio this morning they said that it was Carter's 100th birthday.  They played his Elegy and I enjoyed it, very romantic sounding and not just cacophony of strange dissonant noises.

[karlhenning]

I could use some strange dissonant noises this afternoon, actually . . . .

[DavidW]

I could use some strange dissonant noises this afternoon, actually . . . .

Oh?  You should invite the Pink Harp over then (or whatever he's called these days)!

[springrite]

I could use some strange dissonant noises this afternoon, actually . . . .

Another advantage of having Kimi aounrd at a very vocal yet non-verbal stage!  

[Joe Barron]

On the radio this morning they said that it was Carter's 100th birthday.  They played his Elegy

Yeah, that's about what I expect from radio programmers

This afternoon, before departing for New York, I've listened to the Fourth String Quartet, with the Composers Quartet, and the Reflexions (live broadcast recording). Both very attractive works. The Fourth Quartet is kind of gnarly, perhaps, but the central adagio is really very beautiful, and the ending, with the alternating pp and f, corda-senza corda, is one of Carter's most memorable stretched of music. The Composers' recording, long out of print, is my favorite of the three that have been done. I'm lookng forward --- and forward, and forward --- to the Pacifica release.

[DavidW]

Well Joe, your review (on amazon) has convinced me to order the Pacifica Quartet's recording of SQs 1 and 5.

I don't think I've ever heard #5, before it was #1-4 performed by the fuddy duddy Juilliard.  I think I liked #2 best, but it's been so long since I've heard them I don't even remember.

[bhodges]

Well Joe, your review (on amazon) has convinced me to order the Pacifica Quartet's recording of SQs 1 and 5.

Just bought it about a half-hour ago.  I've heard No. 5 several times live by the Arditti Quartet, but not this recent recording, and in addition to Joe's fine review, others have been glowing.

--Bruce

[Bogey]

Carter featured on NPR this evening:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98081089&ps=bb1

[DavidW]

Carter featured on NPR this evening:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98081089&ps=bb1

Yeah that's what I heard on the radio.

[jwinter]

From today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/arts/music/12carter.html?_r=1&hp

[Joe Barron]

Wonderful concert last night. Carnegie Hall was full, despite the cold and driving rain. I won't get into a detailed review of the performance of Interventions, since the piece is still new to me, and I certainly didn't grasp it all. Some impressions, though: First, the exotic whirring, ringing sound I detected in the live stream was nothing more than a pair of maracas. I loved the openness of the string line. As I said to Bruce afterward, the orchestral writing had a spaciousness that I can best describe as Coplandesque --- in feeling, if not in the actual sound. Interventions may be Carter's prairie piece. (It took me a few minutes to adjust to the Rite of Spring, which followed Interventions, because the sound worlds are so different. Early Stravinsky seemed much more concentrated than late Carter.) At one point, there was a beautiful interval played by pair of flutes embedded in the string line. It lasted only a moment, but it was memorable. As in much of Carter's late orchestral writing, a large number of percussion instruments are used to provide tone color. For the most part, they are played softly, though there are a few solid thumps here and there. Toward the end, I  thought I detected in the piano part the sort of scurrying, chirdless runs out of which Carter constructed Catenaires, which would make sense, since Catenaires was completed just before Interventions was begun. In all, a bright, attractive piece that made a lasting impression on a powerhouse program. 

One other note: Carter had based his music, philosophically, on the notion that time is in constant flux and nothing ever repeats, but it struck me last night that things do come around again. Mr. Carter was inspired to become a composer when he heard the BSO play the Rite of Spring at Carnegie Hall, and here he was, 84 years later, listening to the same orchestra play the same music in the same place. I first met Mr. Carter in 1974, and here I was, 34 years later, watching him take a bow on his 100th birthday.

[karlhenning]

"Nothing ever repeats" is contrary to most of our experiences, isn't it?

[Mark G. Simon]

A picture of Carter, seated in Carnegie Hall, was briefly run on the front page of the New York Times website last night, with a caption mentioning his 100th birthday and the premier of his Interventions.

[Joe Barron]

here is the rose interview

A conversation with Elliott Carter, Daniel Barenboim and James Levine (31'45)
>> http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9774

Not bad, actually. I liked much of what Barenboim had to say. When Rose addressed Carter, he reminded me of a waitress serving an old man in a diner: he spoke loudly and slowly amnd repated himself.

[bhodges]

It was a marvelous evening in so many ways.  If nothing else--and there was much else--just to see a packed Carnegie Hall standing and cheering Carter was heartwarming.  And PS, during the concert, Carter was listening as intently as someone a quarter of his age.  (In contrast, several people near me were dozing, including one audibly snoring.) 

Joe has already given the piece some nice words, and I agree: it's hard to grasp in one hearing.  Sometimes the orchestra seems to make clouds of notes that rush by like schools of fish, with the piano then duplicating some of the orchestral textures--except when the piano "intervenes" with its own ideas.  Lots of fascinating textures appear, then vanish.

After Inverventions, when Carter came to the stage, Levine led the orchestra in "Happy Birthday," with many in the audience joining in.  And then they wheeled out this huge cake (about 7 tiers) with a sparkler on top, which Carter eventually blew out to more applause.

More Carter tonight and tomorrow, with a world premiere at each concert.  I am convinced that writing music is one of the things that is keeping him vital.  Of course, there are other factors, but he definitely seems unusually sharp given the universe of 100-year-olds. 

--Bruce

[Joe Barron]

(In contrast, several people near me were dozing, including one audibly snoring.) 

How could anyone doze during Beethoven, Carter or Stravinsky?

[karlhenning]

Beethoven is certainly cozy-making.

[bhodges]

How could anyone doze during Beethoven, Carter or Stravinsky?

Believe me, I was a bit shocked, too, but there you go.

--Bruce