Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto; Concerto for Orchestra; Concerto for Orchestra; Three Occasions
Our Price: $9.43
Availability: Usually ships in 3 to 6 weeks
Buy Used: from $5.29 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Composer: Elliott CarterConductor: Michael Gielen
Orchestra: SWR Baden-Baden and Freiburg Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra: SWF Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden
Performer: Ursula Oppens
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-06-14
Music Label: Arte Nova Classics
Soundtracks:
- Piano Concerto: I.
- Piano Concerto: II.
- Concerto for Orchestra
- Three Occasions for orchestra: A Celebration of 100 X 150 Notes
- Three Occasions for orchestra: Remembrance
- Three Occasions for orchestra: Anniversary
Free Music Notes for Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto; Concerto for Orchestra; Concerto for Orchestra; Three Occasions
Free Music Review: strong 1992 performances
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a reissue of the 1992 Arte Nova disc which featured a spectacularly inappropriate still-life flower vase for a cover. These orchestral works by Elliott Carter are complex and teeming with conflict and dynamism, just like ... a vase of flowers. The unidentified cityscape is a big improvement, a standard symbol for modernity, complexity and motion.
This is the second recording of the "Piano Concerto" (1964-5 -- 22'31) by the team of conductor Michael Gielen and Ursula Oppens on piano, following their 1984 recording with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on New World. This recording from eight years later with the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden & Freiburg is better, much better. The "Piano Concerto" is not one of Carter's best works, but this is its best performance and recording. It was written in Berlin near an American target range not long after the Wall went up, and the sound of machine guns is echoed in the eruptions of the orchestra in the second movement. Metaphysically, the "Piano Concerto" seems to have been inspired by the global "Cold War" conflict to address the tragedy of intractable human conflict.
The highlight of the disc is a performance of one of Carter's masterpieces, the "Concerto for Orchestra" (1969 -- 22'23). Commissioned by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, their original recording failed to do justice to this fantastically complex work. The "Concerto" features four groups of instruments, each proceeding at a different tempo through the work, one of the best examples of this dynamic structural innovation in Carter's oeuvre. Gielen's recording follows by only a year the recording by Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta, a performance supervised by the composer. I believe that 1991 Virgin recording, now reissued on EMI,stands as the finest available (see my review), but this is a strong alternative. Gielen leads the SWR to more powerful tutti passages than Knussen, but Knussen's reading is more transparent, more like Boulez in laying bare the intricacies of the score. Another advantage of the Virgin recording is that the "Concerto" is separated into six tracks, which makes it easier to hear the logic of the movements by listening to them one at a time.
The "Three Occasions for Orchestra" (1968-9 -- 17') is also found on the 1991 Virgin/EMI disc. This live recording does not compare to the crisper studio recording, but this Arte Nova disc affords an opportunity to hear an excellent Carter work at a bargain price.
Classical Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Classical Music CDs
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops:
The Queen, the Bear, and the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty
Childrens Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.40
Price in other shops:
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $25.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
![Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] Image](/images/Jose-Carreras-Jubileum-Concert-VHS-1584481471-X.jpg){kind=small}
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.87
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-The-Nutcracker-Nureyev-Park-Royal-Ballet-VHS-156127092X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.94
Price in other shops:
![Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] Image](/images/Lonely-Town-Lonley-Street-Sergeant-Early-Dream-VHS-1561270857-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops:
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.62
Price in other shops:
![Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Puccini-La-Fanciulla-del-West-Santi-Domingo-Neblett-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720382-X.jpg){kind=small}
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Verdi-Falstaff-Giulini-Bruson-Ricciarelli-Nucci-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720358-X.jpg){kind=small}
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
Pierre Boulez: Rituel / Eclat / Multiples - Ensemble InterContemporain / BBC Symphony OrchestraRelease date: 1991-01-14; Music CD
Best price: $4.38
Price in other shops:
Elliott Carter: A Symphony of Three Orchestras; Varèse: Deserts; Ecuatorial; HyperprismRelease date: 1995-12-05; Music CD
Best price: $4.36
Price in other shops: