Variations for Orchestra: Introduction - Theme - Variations 1-9 - Finale
The music of Elliott Carter is one of the best connections that New Music has to Ives and his generation, including Cowell and Nancarrow. Carter, as catholic in his spools of influences as was Ives, wrote many acclaimed ch... more »amber works before his Piano Concerto, played here by Ursula Oppens. But the concerto takes the full weight of the chamber works and sends them loudly and intricately to a higher level, with a more developed hugeness. The Variations for Orchestra are likewise powerful illuminations of previous Carter works, but they too roll so many influences--many of them mainstream--into the mix that the breadth of music alone is staggering. Carter loves the long, large dips and dives, as well as the emergent loudness and lushness that an orchestra can heave much more strongly than a chamber group. But these pieces also show the flip side--that Carter is an astute composer in regard to granular details. --Andrew Bartlett« less
The music of Elliott Carter is one of the best connections that New Music has to Ives and his generation, including Cowell and Nancarrow. Carter, as catholic in his spools of influences as was Ives, wrote many acclaimed chamber works before his Piano Concerto, played here by Ursula Oppens. But the concerto takes the full weight of the chamber works and sends them loudly and intricately to a higher level, with a more developed hugeness. The Variations for Orchestra are likewise powerful illuminations of previous Carter works, but they too roll so many influences--many of them mainstream--into the mix that the breadth of music alone is staggering. Carter loves the long, large dips and dives, as well as the emergent loudness and lushness that an orchestra can heave much more strongly than a chamber group. But these pieces also show the flip side--that Carter is an astute composer in regard to granular details. --Andrew Bartlett
CD Reviews
In American music, first comes Ives, then Carter.
Daniel R. Greenfield | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | 04/20/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"These two compositions would be on my short list of 20th Century symphonic masterpieces. Everything about this album is perfect: from the evocative cover art, the insightful album notes, to Gielen's impressive interpretation. While traditionalists are wont to belittle Carter's work as unapproachable and unpleasant to the ear, they miss the essential: Carter was first and foremost, as was his life-long mentor Charles Ives, an individualist. Neither of these two great American composers wrote their music to please the audience. And in fact, both of these great works are approachable, highly approachable, and admirable, as long as you come to them with an open mind and with ears willing to hear some "non-sissy" music (Ives' words, not mine). Carter's music, like Ives', will open up new realms to anyone who is willing to approach this music with a sufficient degree of openness and willingness to be challenged. There is little doubt in my mind that Carter will come to be regarded as second only to Ives in American music of the 20th Century."
Piano Concerto not as good as the competition
Eric Grunin | New York, NY USA | 07/19/2001
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Oppens and Gielen did a 'remake' of the Piano Concerto eight years later. That performance (on Arte Nova with the SWF orchestra) is a bit better - Oppens gets more of the notes, and Gielen has a better grasp of how the big gestures work. (Also, the timpani don't constantly drown out the orchestra like they do here.) The Arte Nova release comes at a super-budget price, too.Don't know the Variations for Orchestra well enough to have an opinion, but the competition seems strong (especially Levine/Chicago)."
Post-humous composing?
J. F. Laurson | Washington, DC United States | 11/08/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Nietzsche described himself as a post-humous philosopher - and meant more with that than simply a defiant and perhaps unoriginal response of a genius to its being misunderstood until long after their demise. But that is well enough to think about in terms of Carter's music. The Piano Concerto in particular is a monumental work in classical music in the 20th century. Intellectually and structurally (if perhaps never emotionally) it will one day be considered on par with any of Beethoven's Piano Concertos. When listening to Carter, you do it for a few reasons: As an intellectual excercise, in order to satisfy the fire of pretension burning inside ye (not the worst of motivations to pursue high art, if I may add) or simply for the rythmical and structural delight that is clearly audible. This also means that Carter is not Sunday-morning family-brunch listening. You spouse may pour hot coffee over you, your children might want to move out. But a Scotch, a nice Chair, a Thursday evening - and Carter can reveal as much and more than any other modern composer can. The recording on Arte Nova is indeed a notch better, but it lacks the coupeling. Either are well worth getting - and given that one approaches them with the right openness and expectations, will only reward... and richly so."
The Best Performance Available of Elliott Carter's Great Pia
Joe Barron | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States | 12/30/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"There are three performances available of Elliott Carter's great Piano Conerto (two with Ursula Oppens as soloist and Michael Gielen conducting), and this one is the best of the lot. The others may be more accurate or more clearly engineered, as some other reviewers here have stated, but this one is the most gripping. (Reviewing the live concert, critic Andrew Porter called it a performance of the highest order.) The difference? The wonderful playing of the Cincinnati Symphony and the seven-member concertino with which Carter surrounds the soloist. Despite all the talk about Carter's recent "Indian summer" --- composing past the age of 90 --- my favorite music of his comes from his 20-year "high modernist" period, from the Second Quartet of 1959 through the Night Fantasies of 1980. The Piano Concerto, written in the mid-60s, is a masterpiece in a series of masterpieces and one of Carter's most powerful scores. It is a brutal, tragic, heartbreaking work in which the orchestra seems to beat the soloist down just as she begins to take wing. The playing of the orchestral soloists is beautifully phrased, particularly Phillip Ruder's searing, fluent violin. The music goes by really fast, and requires careful, intense listening, but both the concerto and the performance reward the effort. Longtime Carter champion Ursula Oppens has made the work a specialty and has worked closely with the composer in shaping her perfromance. She is flawless.
The Variations from 1954 is a good introduction to Carter's mature orchestral writing --- less initially daunting than the concerto --- and Gielen gives an exciting, insightful account. Carter expert David Schiff has said that the piece really belongs to the more conservative tradition of the Great American Symphonies of Copland and William Schuman, and, in his view, it outdoes them both. Who am I to argue?"
Track Listings (3) - Disc #1