Search - Elliott Carter, Oliver Knussen, Michael Collins :: Elliott Carter: Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei (1993-96) / Clarinet Concerto (1996) (20/21 series) - Oliver Knussen

Gradus ad parnassum

Anonymous Lover of Beauty | 05/25/2006

(5 out of 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."

A massive orchestral piece coupled with a spritely concerto,

Christopher Culver | 08/28/2006

(5 out of 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."