Elliott Carter, 1908-2012

[Spotswood]

I admit to all disparagements of my character.  Still looking forward to next month's Bridge release, though. It will be a pleasure to listen to all those minor new pieces.

[Spotswood]

Here is the latest information on Carter's new wind quintet, fresh from the publisher.

The woodwind quintet by Elliott Carter is entitled "Nine by Five" and will be performed by the New York Woodwind Quintet at Paul Hall, The Juilliard School on Feb. 11, 8pm.  It is approximately 8 minutes in length.  The program notes are below.

PROGRAM NOTE

NINE BY FIVE

When Charles Neidich asked me if I would write a quintet for the excellent New York Woodwind Quintet, after a lot of thought I decided to follow the example of my friend the late Italian composer, Goffredo Petrassi, who wrote a charming wind trio – Tre Per Sette, in which the players each have several instruments of the same type with different ranges. In my Nine by Five the flutist also plays piccolo, the oboist an English horn and so forth.

The work, largely linear, has solos, duets, and even a quintet. These sections are separated by a play of intervallic fragments.

It was composed during the last months of 2009 in NYC.

Elliott Carter

1/5/2010

Babbitt would have called it "Nine to Five," linking to the common work hours and maybe the movie.

February 11 is  Thursday, which is good for me. Anyone up for this? Bruce? Sforzando? James?

Yesterday I downloaded Jessica Koh's performance of the Four Lauds and listened to those a couple of times. I also listened to Rolf Schulte's performance on Bridge as a comparison. Koh's seems more lyrical and sensitive, and less musical, without all the reverb, though that's only a first impression and refers only to selected passages. Still getting to know the pieces, however, and I think I might be concentrating on them for a while.

[Spotswood]

Steve Smith's review of the Met Chamber orchestras' perfromance of Syringa may be seen here. "Instantly perceptible masterwork." The guy's on to something. I've always thought of Syringa as one of Carter's best pieces, written toward the end of his middle, heroic period, before all that minor stuff. I saw it premiered back in '78, at the 70th birthday concert.

[bhodges]

I was quite taken with Syringa, too, and wrote up the concert here.  It seemed to benefit, too, by coming on the heels of Babbitt's The Head of the Bed, which is considerably more austere.  By contrast, the Carter seemed almost romantic.

PS, my favorite comment on Carter in Smith's review: "More and more, he has come to seem like a prescient sage of a multitasking era..."  I like that...a lot.

--Bruce

[Spotswood]

PS, my favorite comment on Carter in Smith's review: "More and more, he has come to seem like a prescient sage of a multitasking era..."  I like that...a lot.

Well, that's somethng Carter said about himself --- in "Labyrinth of Time," I think. I don't remember the exact quote,  something to the effect that as people become more and sophisticated by doing more and more things and absorbing more and more information, they'll learn to like his music. Then he gave this sly grin. It was a cute moment.

[Wendell_E]

From review at ChicagoClassicalReview.com:

"They're going to do Samuel Barber's Summer Music instead of the Elliott Carter," said a gentleman, noting the program change prior to the start of the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet concert at Mandel Hall.

"I'm not sorry," said his female companion....

In his spoken remarks after intermission, [hornist Fergus ] McWilliam explained that the Barber work was subbed for the Carter because of a Homeland Security issue, without going into the details. (Are TSA officers now doubling as critics?)

Huh? What?  "Homeland Security issue"?  Was McWilliam just making a joke?

The full review is at http://chicagoclassicalreview.com/2010/01/berlin-philharmonic-wind-quintet-triumphs-over-distractions-at-mandel-hall/

[karlhenning]

Well, if their passage into the states was at all held up, perhaps they lost needed rehearsal time for the Carter.  Where they could probably eat the Barber for breakfast.

[Cato]

Well, if their passage into the states was at all held up, perhaps they lost needed rehearsal time for the Carter.  Where they could probably eat the Barber for breakfast.

Everybody knows that Elliott Carter's music is both terrific and terrifying!   

Hence the confusion!   0:)

[Spotswood]

Perhaps someone heard the music was "spiky" and wouldn't let it be carried onto the plane.

Back in the 70s, I remember, the Philadelphia Orchestra was supposed to play Three Places in New England and substituted something by Barber at the last minute. Apparenly, he's the guy you program when there isn't enough time to rehearse Carter or Ives.

[springrite]

Back in the 70s, I remember, the Philadelphia Orchestra was supposed to play Three Places in New England and substituted something by Barber at the last minute. Apparenly, he's the guy you program when there isn't enough time to rehearse Carter or Ives.

At least they did not substitute it with the orchestral transcription of 4:33.

[Spotswood]

At least they did not substitute it with the orchestral transcription of 4:33.

I like to think that Cage is what they're playing between the other pieces on the program.

[bhodges]

On Sequenza 21, here's an interview with Elizabeth Rowe, who will be giving the American premiere of Carter's Flute Concerto later this week with the BSO. 

--Bruce

[Spotswood]

Word from Bridge is that The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 8, has shipped today. Amazon says it won't be released until Feb.. 9, but it can be ordered now  at bridgerecords.com, which I have just done.

[Spotswood]

On Sequenza 21, here's an interview with Elizabeth Rowe, who will be giving the American premiere of Carter's Flute Concerto later this week with the BSO. 

--Bruce

Thanks, BH. I like what she's got to say. The Carter being played in the backround while she speaks is Dialogues, I believe. Certainly it wouldn't be the concerto itself, which hasn't been played yet.

[Spotswood]

Not satisified with the website's reference to homeland security issues, I sent Fergus McWilliam an e-mail asking for an elaboration, and he sent me this reply:

More mundane and inane than a mere fear of Carter: hand luggage regulations permit
taking only one music instrument on board and the necessary "equipment" for
Carter (and Pavel Haas) had to stay behind in Berlin. Perhaps all these new regulations
can however be seen as a joke. A sad one.

[karlhenning]

TSA hasn't yet caught up with the idea of doubling . . . .

[Guido]

Barber's Summermusic is one of the absolute hardest wind quintets in the literature, almost unreasonably so - the only reason it gets played so much is that its so darned good!

[Spotswood]

The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 8 arrived this morning in the tightest package I have ever beheld. Am at work and have little time for it, but I did sneak a listen to a couple of the shorter tracks. Particularly impressed with the Due Duetti for violin and cello and am looking forward to getting home to listen to the longer pieces. Rich, warm sound. A major release, even if Mr. Carter's late work is so terribly minor.

Good to have all the "Retracings" in one spot, too. I hadn't been aware of what Carter was doing here: repackaging (or retracing) passages from other, larger works for solo instrument. Retracing I, for bassoon, is an excerpt from the ASKO concerto. No. II, for horn (my favorite), recaps a section of the Quintet for Piano and Winds. And no. III, for trumpet, combines the opening trumpet solo of A Symphony of Three Orchestras with some new, interpolated material. The symphony is not performed very often as often as I would like. The opening trumpet solo is brilliant (one of the highlights of Carter's oeuvre, and therefore one of the highlights of 20th century music), and an arrangement for solo trumpet allows it to be played more frequently and disseminated more widely. Always easier for a single plater  to present the piece alone than to wait for a whole orchestra to get around to it.

[Spotswood]

Well, since I'm talking to myself here, I might as well go on ...

Listened to a few more tracks of the Carter Vol 8 this morning: The Clarinet Quintet, Tintinnabulation (for six percussionists), On Conversing with Paradise (text by Ezra Pound), and once again, the Due Duetti, for violin and cello, which is fast becoming a favorite. (I like the rich, warm tones of the instruments.)  All great music, well played and lovingly recorded.  I don't know why, but I think of this as  Abbey Road of the Bridge Carter series. Can't explain it,  really, but it came to mind this morning and it made sense to me.

The Clarinet Quintet is the big piece here, at 13:47 the longest of all. I heard the premier live, but it's good to have it in the living room, up close. Not quite as taken with it yet as with the Oboe Quartet, but that will come after a few hearings, I'm sure. It's a very attractive work. Liner notes say it more fluid, less schematic than Oboe Quartet. Not sure I can hear that, but there are some wonderful effects.

Interesting that Carter's major chamber pieces in the past decade have been for classic forms: Clarinet Quintet, Oboe Quartet, Piano Quintet, and now an upcoming Wind Quintet. Who knew that in extreme old age, he would turn into Mozart?

According to the booklet notes by Bayan Northcott,  a Marianne Moore song cycle and a concerto for bas clarinet floating around out there somewhere. The former I had heard about, the latter not. He must have written it for Virgil Blackwell.

[Franco]

These are excellent posts concerning new music from Elliott Carter.  I consider him the most important composer of the last hundred years - but I can guess others would quibble with that assessment.    The fact that he is still active, much less prolific, at this advanced age is nothing short of remarkable.  Eventually I expect to hear everything he's written even if it takes me the rest of my life, and Bridge Records has embarked on a very worthy project of presenting his music in excellent recordings.