Elliott Carter: Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei (1993-96) / Clarinet Concerto (1996) (20/21 series) - Oliver Knussen
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Free Music Notes for Elliott Carter: Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei (1993-96) / Clarinet Concerto (1996) (20/21 series) - Oliver Knussen
Free Music Review: Carter at the Apex
Hit: 5 Stars
At an age where most composers have stopped (or died), Elliott Carter has reached yet another apex in a long and fruitful career. This disk contains a pair of substantive works, one brief and one quite lengthy.
The "Clarinet Concerto" in its seven miniature and connected movements, clearly shows the sunny aspect that underlies much of Carter's music. The writing is both humorous and treacherous for the soloist. The orchestration is brilliant: colorful but never overwhelming the clarinet. Not that this piece is easy to perform, but the balances are natural and unforced. So many people are afraid of Elliott Carter, but this piece is fun to hear.
A striking aspect of the "Symphonia" is its classicism. Except for the addition of mallets in the percussion, this could easily be a late 19th-century orchestra. Carter doesn't use extended techniques (plucking the piano, bowing the cymbals, etc) as part of his sound-palette. In its three movements, "Symphonia" follows the classical pattern of fast/slow/fast. The first movement is complex, contrasting and vividly dramatic--characteristics that might be found in Brahms. The second is lyrical, rising to one great climax before quietly yielding to the final movement. The last movement is fast and flowing with the wonderful contrast of lyrical strings over rapid bursts from the woodwinds. But with all of these similarities to more classical music, why does Carter sound so different? He is perhaps not so interested in establishing a long distinguishable line that is then developed. It is sometimes a little difficult to determine exactly what his underlying material IS. But with repeated and focused listening, more and more becomes clear, and his connection with the great classical tradition is solidly established.
This is not music for playing in the background. It requires time and concentration. But Oliver Knusson's skilled conducting lays the piece out so that wonderful music can be heard by those willing to listen.
Free Music Review: A massive orchestral piece coupled with a spritely concerto, both skillfully written
Hit: 5 Stars
This Deutsche Grammophon disc, an installment of the "20/21" series of contemporary music recordings, contains two works by the great American modernist Elliott Carter which he embarked upon well into his 80s. Oliver Knussen leads the London Sinfonietta and clarinettist Michael Collins in the concerto, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the "Symphonia".
Carter's music is controversial, as a glimpse at reviews here would reveal, but I found the works here far from harsh and abrasive. Most of the soundworld isn't too different from that of well-regarded figures like Lutoslawski or the early Lindberg. While it's understandable that fans of earlier eras of art music would find Carter not their cup of tea, there's nothing here that should evoke a violent reaction. It's certain tuneful; for fans of contemporary music, there's a lot of truly catchy material here that will stay with you long after the disc comes to an end.
So what's Carter's approach? He is fascinated by the idea of polytempos where two lines start off at the same pace, but eventually one appears the slower and the other the faster. The liner notes compare it to seeing two pendulums start off swinging, but one winds down before the other. This is a concept of great possibilities which gives the music many angles from which to view the action. If one wants to hear a less uncomprimisingly modernist use of the technique, I could recommend Per Norgard's "Concerto in due tempi" (on a Chandos disc with his masterpiece Symphony No. 3), but if this piques your interest, Elliott Carter's music is very much worth hearing.
The massive "Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei" (1993-1996) is Carter's largest orchestral work, loosely based on Richard Crashaw's poem "Bulla" where artistic inspiration is compared to a bubble. "I am the prize of flowing hope." As he began work on the piece when was 85 years old, he wasn't sure he would live to complete it, and so he wrote its three sections for independent commissions before finally tying them all together. The opening "Partita" is, as its title indicates, playful where various portions of the orchestra contend in sport. Here various themes appear again and again, but they're never quite repeated. The second movement, "Adagio tenebroso", is like night to the first movement's day. A dark series of brooding landscapes, some have seen in this movement a meditation on all of the 20th century's horrors. The final "Allegro scorrevole" returns us to sunnier territory, with a general wispiness and scintillating percussion, something like a more unhinged version of Ligeti's "Melodien". Carter's orchestral writing is exciting, as he really explores all possibilities of the ensemble, just listen to the big chord that opens up "Symphonia", played on both extremely low registers and the very highest.
The "Clarinet Concerto" (1996) introduces, of course, a soloist, but it also displays a new concept in Carter's use of the orchestra: breaking it up into small, semi-autonomous units. Here the players are organized on the stage into six individual groups, such as piano, harp, and pitched percussion in one, unpitched percussion in another, and so forth. The first six movements of the concerto highlight each of these groups in turn, making for an intimate feel and a shifting series of partners in conversation for the soloist. The clarinet writing is often light, airy, and fleet-footed, a strong contrast to an orchestra that can't quite move so freely.
The liner notes are excellent. They contain the full text of Crashaw's poem "Bulla" in its original Latin and in translation, a description of the pieces by critic Bayan Northcott, and some remarks by Oliver Knussen that sketch Carter's biography and general aesthetic. All in all, this is a very entertaining disc for fans of modernism.
Free Music Review: Great Performance - Excellent Piece
Hit: 4 Stars
I enjoyed Symphonia very much and I am getting hooked to listening to it again and again. The Clarinet Concerto was not too bad and perhaps my only complaint is the recording. There are certain moments when I wish I can hear more of the solo instrument but it is overpowered by the orchestra. If that was a harp concerto, I wouldn't say a word, but an instrument of such a vigorous dynamic control shouldn't be overpowered that easily.
All in all, I am very happy with my CD and will listen to it on and on!
Danny
Free Music Review: gradus ad parnassum
Hit: 5 Stars
The Symphonia is pure music at its most pure...in short: words fail. Carter, along with other contemporary composers of what is unfortunately termed atonal music (with this pejorative is the built in but incorrect assumption that consonance and dissonance are not bound by period and by cultural factors) is often criticized for writing alienating mathematical music (don't even get me started about the notion that math and music are one in the same. It simply isn't true). And this music IS complex, but it is also most rewarding. It wants a patient listener. It wants a listener without expectations about what music "should be like". Such a listener will, with familiarity, find a unique and a real beauty. He will discover, in fact, the Sublime. Free Music Review: Overrated and frankly Unmusical
Hit: 1 Stars
I have studied modern composition and have learned the hard fact that Carter's music might be good for an analysis class but it's just NOT musical.Surely that is what is important.
I am baffled he is so highly rated-the general public this time are right in not liking it.Carter's music is actually very unmusical and also plain dull as a previous reviewer said.He is highly skilled at orchestation but so what.I am no great fan of atonal music but Ives(who he admires)at least was very MUSICAL-Carter is not.
How does he expect the public to like it when even composition students don't get it(Babbitt and Stockhausen are even more extreme examples of music turning into a scientific exercise).It's no wonder contemporary music concerts are low in numbers when they're doing this stuff-I would'nt go and I have studied it!!
It's about time he and others like Babbitt(don't tell me that is good music!),Stockhausen,and Maxwell Davies are finally seen for what they are and not put on a pedestal by major orchestras-very clever note manipulators who just ain't musical.Stravinsky was a clever note manipulator BUT was always naturally musical-even in his serial music.