Search - Elliott Carter, Oliver Knussen, London Sinfonietta :: Elliott Carter: Concerto for Orchestra; Violin Concerto; Three Occasions for Orchestra

Outstanding Carter Album

Mark Newkirk | Prague, Czech Republic | 07/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"EMI Classics presents three Carter works, over an hour of the most difficult music imaginable, brilliantly played and recorded. This inexpensive collection is a great opportunity to listen to and gain an understanding of Carter's challenging music.

The Three Occasions for Orchestra are a good introduction to Carter's sound world. The pieces are relatively short, so they are less of a strain on the attention span than the big pieces that follow.

Carter's Violin Concerto sounds very much like a rhythmically freer version of Schoenberg's great Violin Concerto (listening to the two successively or alternating movements is very revealing). This is Carter at his most European, classical and accessible. Which is still to say very international, modern and difficult.

The Concerto for Orchestra brings us back to the American Carter, taking us on an exhausting journey, a universe of sound in only twenty minutes. Together with Carter's String Quartet No. 3, this piece represents most clearly Carter's ideal of creating a music of individual characters expressing themselves individually and in a free dialogue. This is not freedom like some patriotic slogan. This is the kind of hair-raising, where-do-we-go-from-here freedom that we instinctively fear but that we can come to hold dear. In other words, be ready to be confused, enraged, excited, disappointed and maybe even thrilled on a sonic journey that reveals something new at every listening."

"great winds of change, destruction, and renewal..."

R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 10/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Thanks to EMI for reissuing this best recording of Carter's CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA (1969), originally released on the Virgin label. 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.



Carter supervised the 1991 recording by the London Sinfonietta, led by Oliver Knussen, and unlike the other available recordings, it is separated into six tracks which facilitates careful listening. Knussen's interpretation is Boulezian, revealing every detail of the score, in contrast to Michael Gielen's recording of a year later leading the SWR Sinfonieorchester (see my review), which is more lush and romantic, with more powerful tutti passages, but which misses some of the rich complexity.



First performed in 1970, the CONCERTO reflects the turmoil of the times. Bayan Northcott in the liner notes describes the composition as "a large structure as a kind of vortex of interacting forces." The "great winds" quote above refers to the poem "Vents" which was an inspiration for the piece. With his CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA Carter created one of the most powerful and distinctive orchestral works of the late 20th century.



"Three Occasions for Orchestra" and the "Violin Concerto" are more recent compositions from the late 1980s, and both are superb. While neither is as stunning as the CONCERTO, they work perfectly here in creating a diverse and absolutely compelling set of modern music!



An interesting element of this disc's original Virgin incarnation was the involvement of Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, a devotee of modern music who studied with Luciano Berio at Mills College. Lesh and his Rex Foundation helped subsidize the 1991 recording. The Virgin disc with original cover art has now been reissued by ArkivMusic.



See my ELLIOTT CARTER: A CENTENARY LISTENER'S GUIDE for more reviews and recommendations. See also my lists THE THREE BEST LATE 20th CENTURY COMPOSERS (Carter, Ligeti and Xenakis), THE 12 BEST and 30 OF THE BEST LATE 20th/21st CENTURY COMPOSERS."

First-rate performances

Personne | Rocky Mountain West | 12/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Let's assume that you're an Elliott Carter fan and that you don't need my review to convince you that this music is well worth hearing. So how well is it played?



I first became aware of Oliver Knussen in the late 1970's. He came upon the scene as a composer of talent, although his output has never been very large. Somewhere along the way, he began conducting. And he turned into one heck of a fine conductor.



Far too many conductors face new music -- if they face it at all -- as a job to get over with. They beat time, keep some minor control of dynamics, and let the rest happen. Few of them seem to inquire into the music at a deeper level. What are the tempo relationships? What details should be foremost? Where is the drama? Oliver Knussen brings a composer's ear to this task. It is clear that he understands every detail and how that detail fits into the overall scheme of the piece. He makes certain that it is played properly. The result is a performance of drama and clarity, not only showing the excitement of these pieces, but also placing them squarely in the classical mindset that permeates all of Carter.



There is never a single definitive performance of a piece. Great music supports any number of valid approaches, and different ears can ascribe differing levels of importance to details in a piece. But there is not doubt that, from the very first measure, these performances are definitive. Somehow, EMI has let this recording go out of print. Snatch one up while you can."