Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto; Concerto for Orchestra; Concerto for Orchestra; Three Occasions

Editorial Reviews
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
"Ursula Oppens and Michael Gielen are fine exponents of Carter’s intriguingly complex music."

Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto; Concerto for Orchestra; Concerto for Orchestra; Three Occasions, Music, Elliott Carter, Michael Gielen, SWF Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Ursula Oppens, 20th/21st Century Occasional Music, Classical, Classical Composers, Concerto, Concerto for Orchestra, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic, Piano Concerto

Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto; Concerto for Orchestra; Concerto for Orchestra; Three Occasions
Average customer rating:

Amazing performance of an extremely difficult piece

Two interesting but thoroughly ugly concertos, followed by a display of colour

Ugly Ugliness

A classic Carter recording reissued

worth having for the piano concerto-one of EC's best pieces

Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto; Concerto for Orchestra; Concerto for Orchestra; Three Occasions

Manufacturer: Arte Nova Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0009ML2N8
Release Date: 2005-06-14

Tracks:

I
II
Concerto For Orchestra
A Celebration Of 100 x 150 Notes
Remembrance
Anniversary

Customer Reviews:

Amazing performance of an extremely difficult piece.......2007-03-01

I cannot understate the difficulty of the Piano Concerto by Carter which by all measures is difficult. It sways back and forth like the tides of the ocean. The opening is rivetting with its intense rhythmicity.

Two interesting but thoroughly ugly concertos, followed by a display of colour.......2006-10-25

I discovered the ever-controversial composer Elliott Carter through his recent works like the "Symphonia" and the Cello Concerto. "What's the big deal," I thought, "he's no more out there than Lutoslawski or Lindberg, so why the public rage against him?" Well, on this Arte Nova release, a reissue of a 1992 disc, I got an answer. Michael Gielen leads the SWF Symphony Orchestra, with Ursula Oppens as piano soloist.

The two-movement "Piano Concerto" (1964-1965) is notable for its overt dramatic arc. The piano is a lone individual against the orchestral mob, and their interaction is violent. The piano is surrounded by a small ensemble of seven players who seem to support the piano, but are ultimately false comforters to the piano's Job, as Carter puts it. This form has been used successfully in Lutoslawski's cello concerto and Schnittke's viola concerto, and here it holds interest. And as ever, there are delightful experiments with varying rhythms. But there's a major problem with Carter here: his music is totally void of colour. I listen exclusively to modern repertoire, so I've no fear of the atonal, but you'd think an orchestra has more sonorities to offer then the same drab thumps that characterize this piece.

The same problem plagues the single-movement "Concerto for Orchestra" (1969). Still, one can admire the virtuosity present in the writing of all orchestral parts, and the way in which the spotlight is passed from each of the four instrumental groups to another is somewhat elegant. But in addition to Carter's monochromatic palette, the recording of these first two pieces is not ideal, it sounds as if the entire orchestra were playing inside a clown car.

With the "Three Occasions for Orchestra" (1986-1989), Carter has mellowed, and colour is definitely present. These three pieces were composed at different times and merely collected together for convenience. The first, "A Celebration of 100 x 150 Notes" was writen for the Houston Symphony to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Texas. It's a fanfare lasting exactly 150 bars that, for has its uncomprising modernism, has some downright charming writing for brass. "Remembrace" was written as a memorial for Paul Fromm, its sad expanses foretell the middle movement of his "Symphonia". "Anniversary" was written on the occasion of his fiftieth wedding anniversary to his wife Helen Carter, it's an airy piece, though feels somewhat fluffy and insubstantial after a few listens.

The disc comes with liner notes amounting to two pages. These lack any analysis of the pieces, giving instead mere context on when they were written. For more in-depth coverage of the music, I'd recommend David Schiff's THE MUSIC OF ELLIOTT CARTER (Cornell University Press, 1998).

For listening for mere idle pleasure, the recent Carter serves much better. These pieces here have some fascinating rhythmic and programmatic features, which does provide a reason to buy the disc for Carter fans, but the two concertos are pretty ugly music.

Ugly Ugliness.......2006-06-23

and dull....there are pieces that are Beautiful Ugly like Beethoven's Grosse Fugue or Varese's Arcana - but the music on this CD is just Ugly Ugly - Carter knows instruments, but his palette is soooooooooooooooo dull - this is the Concerto for Orchestra - to describe the work as busy music would be an understatement - only the beginning and end of a Carter work is mildly ear-catching - in between you have an unsustainable music - this is no exception - and with a lot of music after WW2, the more organized a work is on paper, the more chaotic it seems when heard - no exception there, either - the Concerto for Orchestra is a work which a dedicated conductor and orchestra should perform without anyone actually hearing it -

Some have mentioned how Carter differentiates musics by using specific instruments and intervals - so what? and what about the resulting music? The Piano Concerto uses the soloist and a chamber group to distinguish itself from the rest of the orchestra - ah yes, if they were in two different cities, perhaps - The most interesting thing about the Piano Concerto for me, aside from its two-movement form (borrowing from Berg's fiddle concerto), is the ugliest bass clarinet solo ever conceived this side of a mouthpiece - a more hideous creation could not be immagined -

The Three Occasions is good if you drop the last two, which leaves you One - at just over three minutes, it has somes nice fifths, which would be appropriate for a fanfare (except for the blips at the end) - Less is more -

A classic Carter recording reissued.......2006-03-04

This budget-price recording, featuring two Elliott Carter specialists, the pianist Ursula Oppens and the conductor Michael Gielen, has long been a highlight of the composer's discography. Now reissued in rather more attractive packaging, it remains an essential disc for those who know and love Carter's highly complex, densely atonal music.

The 1965 Piano Concerto is one of the composer's most difficult--yet most rewarding--pieces. It's written in two movements, and to add to the complexity of the music, there's a small sub-orchestra that acts as an intermediary between the soloist and the full orchestra. (No wonder that Carter now says he could never again write works like the Piano Concerto--they'd just take up too much time.) It's a highly dramatic work, with the piano constantly at odds with the orchestra, and the sub-orchestra attempting to bring about some kind of rapprochement between the soloist and orchestra. In the end, this fails, and in a truly terrifying climax the pounding drums finally silence the soloist--only for her to start up again in a slow, quiet coda.

Of the three recordings--all very good--that I've heard of this concerto, this is the strongest. Mark Wait's on Naxos lacks the truly apocalyptic resonances of the climax, and Oppens' earlier New World recording, to my mind, operates on a slightly lower level of tension than the present reading.

The Concerto for Orchestra was written soon after the Piano Concerto, and is a similarly dramatic work, if slightly less fierce. It has an openly literary program, being inspired by St John Perse's poem "Vents," which depicts the destruction and renewal of America through violent windstorms. After an opening tutti, the work evokes the winds of the four seasons by focusing on a different section of the orchestra for each season, before reaching a violent climax and fading away.

Of the easily available rivals to this recording, Oliver Knussen's recording with the London Sinfonietta is the most competitive. It features somewhat better playing and clearer detail, though it doesn't quite have the dramatic sweep of the present recording. Leonard Bernstein's Sony recording, while dramatic, disqualifies itself as a first choice through the many inaccuracies in the playing.

The disc closes with a less ambitious, more recent piece, the Three Occasions for Orchestra. Compared to the two earlier works, this one shows the slimming down of style that has been prominent in Carter's work over the last 20 years, to my mind, with mixed results--though the textures are clearer, more joyous, something of the dramatic sweep and intensity has been lost. The work begins with a complex fanfare, continues with a bleak elegy and concludes with a celebratory last movement. While not major Carter, it can perhaps be considered significant as it forms a sort of miniature prototype of his key 1990s work, Symphonia.

Knussen's London Sinfonietta recording is, again, the competitor here. It is technically superior, but I find Gielen has a warmth that Knussen doesn't quite match.

Overall, this is an essential disc for any Carter enthusiast, though, due to the highly complex nature of the two concertos, it may not be the ideal place for a newcomer to start (I'd still direct such people to the Elektra Nonesuch disc of the Double Concerto, the Cello Sonata and the Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord).

worth having for the piano concerto-one of EC's best pieces.......2005-09-26

The Piano concerto is one of Carter's finest achievements.
Initially, seeming like the hermetic norm one assosciates with this composer it slowly emerges as a piece with a real sense of passion and fantasy.On this rare occasion unleashed from his Nadia Boulanger heritage,there's something very likeable about the way the piano weaves it's way through an unwieldy orchestral mass.The melodic writing(most notably a bass clarinet solo)is also surprisingly engaging.A bleak piece-composed in Berlin amidst the height Cold War tensions-but strangely compelling.

Concerto for Orchestra remains a tough nut to crack.Maybe i need to hear the Knussen recording but it's hard to fathom the continuity and allure of this piece.It seems to have been composed by the page,without the fierce sense of urgency which are the hallmarks of equally dense orchestral works of Xenakis and Stockhausen.
Still,there are interesting features.Most notably,the way in which the orchestral piano almost takes on a heroic,soloistic role.

The three occasions might veer slightly in the direction of dryness but atleast no.1 has a splendidly visceral climax 1.5 minutes in! Rather dreary trombone line in no.2,but things improve in no.3 where Lulu-like string lines are accompanied by spasmodic yet urgent ticking motifs.

Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto / Concerto for Orchestra / Three Occasions

Average customer rating:

Two interesting but thoroughly ugly concertos, followed by a display of colour
strong 1992 performances -- look for the reissue
Great stuff, but not for Carter newbies
Piano Concerto goes well, the others don't
Gielen and Oppens make good Carter synergy

Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto / Concerto for Orchestra / Three Occasions

Manufacturer: Arte Nova Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Elliott Carter: Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei (1993-96) / Clarinet Concerto (1996) (20/21 series) - Oliver Knussen
Elliott Carter: A Symphony of Three Orchestras; Varèse: Deserts; Ecuatorial; Hyperprism
Carter: Oboe Concerto, Esprit Rude - Esprit Doux, a Mirror on Which to Dwell
Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto; Concerto for Orchestra; Concerto for Orchestra; Three Occasions
Elliott Carter: Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello & Harpsichord; Sonata for Cello & Piano; Double Concerto for Harpsichor

ASIN: B000005I5T
Release Date: 1998-01-01

Tracks:

Concerto For Piano And Orchestra: I
Concerto For Piano And Orchestra: 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

Customer Reviews:

Two interesting but thoroughly ugly concertos, followed by a display of colour.......2006-10-25

I discovered the ever-controversial composer Elliott Carter through his recent works like the "Symphonia" and the Cello Concerto. "What's the big deal," I thought, "he's no more out there than Lutoslawski or Lindberg, so why the public rage against him?" Well, on this Arte Nova release (recently reissued at budget price), I got an answer. Michael Gielen leads the SWF Symphony Orchestra, with Ursula Oppens as piano soloist.

The two-movement "Piano Concerto" (1964-1965) is notable for its overt dramatic arc. The piano is a lone individual against the orchestral mob, and their interaction is violent. The piano is surrounded by a small ensemble of seven players who seem to support the piano, but are ultimately false comforters to the piano's Job, as Carter puts it. This form has been used successfully in Lutoslawski's cello concerto and Schnittke's viola concerto, and here it holds interest. And as ever, there are delightful experiments with varying rhythms. But there's a major problem with Carter here: his music is totally void of colour. I listen exclusively to modern repertoire, so I've no fear of the atonal, but you'd think an orchestra has more sonorities to offer then the same drab thumps that characterize this piece.

The same problem plagues the single-movement "Concerto for Orchestra" (1969). Still, one can admire the virtuosity present in the writing of all orchestral parts, and the way in which the spotlight is passed from each of the four instrumental groups to another is somewhat elegant. But in addition to Carter's monochromatic palette, the recording of these first two pieces is not ideal, it sounds as if the entire orchestra were playing inside a clown car.

With the "Three Occasions for Orchestra" (1986-1989), Carter has mellowed, and colour is definitely present. These three pieces were composed at different times and merely collected together for convenience. The first, "A Celebration of 100 x 150 Notes" was writen for the Houston Symphony to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Texas. It's a fanfare lasting exactly 150 bars that, for has its uncomprising modernism, has some downright charming writing for brass. "Remembrace" was written as a memorial for Paul Fromm, its sad expanses foretell the middle movement of his "Symphonia". "Anniversary" was written on the occasion of his fiftieth wedding anniversary to his wife Helen Carter, it's an airy piece, though feels somewhat fluffy and insubstantial after a few listens.

The disc comes with liner notes amounting to two pages. These lack any analysis of the pieces, giving instead mere context on when they were written. For more in-depth coverage of the music, I'd recommend David Schiff's THE MUSIC OF ELLIOTT CARTER (Cornell University Press, 1998).

For listening for mere idle pleasure, the recent Carter serves much better. These pieces here have some fascinating rhythmic and programmatic features, which does provide a reason to buy the disc for Carter fans, but the two concertos are pretty ugly music.

strong 1992 performances -- look for the reissue.......2005-08-06

This Arte Nova disc has now been reissued with a new cover, an aerial cityscape much more appropriate to the dynamic music than this still-life flower vase.

This is the second recording of the "Piano Concerto (1964-5 -- 22'31) by conductor Michael Gielen and pianist Ursula Oppens, following their 1984 recording with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on New World. This recording from eight years later with the SWF Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden is much, 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 composition. The "Concerto" features four groups of instruments, each proceeding at a different tempo through the work, one of the best examples of this core Carter innovation in his 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 is the best available (see my review), but it is harder to find. If you cannot locate a copy (try amazon.co.uk), this is a strong alternative. Gielen leads the SWFSO 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 disc 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 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.

Great stuff, but not for Carter newbies.......2003-12-04

This disc, conducted by Michael Gielen, a long-time Carter veteran, contains two of his thorniest scores and a rather more accessible--though less important--work. Hence this disc, while an essential for Carter fans, is not ideal for those coming to the composer for the first time (which is a shame, as it is very cheap).

The Piano Concerto (written in the mid-1960s) is a phenomenally complex score, with ferocious, virtuoso atonal writing in the solo instrument against stabbing interjections in the orchestra, frequent changes of perspective, and a brutal climax where pounding drums silence the soloist, only for her to re-emerge, a small, hopeful voice at the end of the work. This is Ursula Oppens' second recording, and her playing is outstanding, as is the support from Michael Gielen and the SWF Symphony Orchestra.

The Concerto for Orchestra, completed in 1969, is still very complex, though perhaps less so than the Piano Concerto. Like many of Carter's work, this one takes a poetic inspiration, in this case from St John Perse's poem Vents, which depicts America swept by great winds of change, destruction and eventually renewal. Accordingly, after a brief introduction, the opening music is appropriately autumnal, dominated by the cellos, wooden percussion, lower piano notes and harp. This music gets more and more frantic until it triggers off a scherzando section focused on violins, flutes and metal percussion. This scherzando music becomes gradually slower until the music sags down into the deep bass (double basses, tubas, trombones, timpani, bass drum) before a restoration of energy (violas, trumpets, oboes, clarinets, snare drums) brings it to a vigorous close.

In contrast, the Three Occasions for Orchestra are much lighter works, ones that to my mind sound like studies for Carter's 1990s masterpiece, Symphonia. The first is a playfully complex fanfare; the is second a bleak elegy with a prominent solo trombone part; the finale brings relief in a warm-hearted celebratory music.

This is an outstanding disc, and could be recommended at full price, let alone the $5.98 it's currently listed at. The performances of all three works can be regarded as the finest available. If you're a Carter fan, don't hesitate--if not, this probably isn't the best place to start (the two concerti are very tough listening, though in my opinion amongst the best orchestral works of the 20th century). Newcomers to Carter would probably do better with the Nonesuch disc containing the Cello Sonata and Double Concerto, or maybe the DG disc of Symphonia.

Piano Concerto goes well, the others don't.......2001-07-13

I'm not going to argue the merits of the music - if you're not already familiar with Carter's style, this disk is *not* the place to start - so let's get right to the performances.

In the Piano Concerto, Oppens does a fine job, actually a bit better than on her previous recording (on New World). The same goes for the orchestra. But they're in way over their head in the Concerto for Orchestra. The strings in particular are consistently either inaudible or else a smudged mess, grabbing frantically at whatever notes they can.

This is, of course, very common with pieces of this difficulty. The attempted premiere of the Concerto for Orchestra (NY Phil/Bernstein) was instead declared an 'open rehearsal', and the recording which followed was an embarrassment. The premiere of the Piano Concerto (Lateiner/Leinsdorf/BSO) was almost as bad.

'Three Occasions' goes better; unfortunately, the audience noises in the quiet and sombre second movement pretty much ruin it.

Fortunately, there are terrific performances of both the Concerto for Orchestra and Three Occasions with Knussen and the London Sinfonietta (on Virgin). They really get it sounding like *music*, not just notes; at least except for the last few minutes of the Concerto, when the strings get all flustered, just like these other performances. Sounds like they ran out of rehearsal time.

Recommended for the Piano Concerto, which, at the super-budget price, is probably enough.

Gielen and Oppens make good Carter synergy.......2000-04-09

It's absolutely incredible the amount of reviews Carter gets, time was no one knew who he was, and if they did, they'd run for the exit doors, some still do. Carter if anything else gets people tied up in his structural constructs, pitch sets, harmonic schemes and metric modulations and conceptual facility. But answer me who can hear all that complexity, not even Carter I dare say, who has a memory to recall when a pitch permutation has occurred from the strings to the winds, no one. What remains, is incredibly expressionistic music with thory strident textures. The darkly brooding Piano Concerto to me recalls the anxiety, the hidden violence that is Americana, they below the surface tension of the problems that exist in this country. The Concerto for Orchestra was written during the Anti-War Vietnam times, and is Carter's contribution to that. In that context he is a great creator, in that his music becomes a document of history, reflecting a specific time where people lived and died. The fact that Carter does both attenuates the structural with a wider social perspective is a sign of genius in this age, of homogenized art. Oppens and Gielen bring the violence and coldness here, as well as opaque feel and violence this music harbors.

Rückblick Moderne: 20th Century Orchestral Music

Average customer rating:

BUT WHY?
Great Recordings
A must for lovers of modern music

Rückblick Moderne: 20th Century Orchestral Music

Manufacturer: Col Legno
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballets | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Trios | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Percussion | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Choruses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000038IDI
Release Date: 1999-11-15

Amazon.com

It starts, appropriately enough, with Charles Ives's The Unanswered Question, which seems to hold its breath, and occasionally exhale in brief bursts of panic, as the new century unfolds. It ends with Dmitri Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony Op. 110a (based on his String Quartet No. 8), whose alternating sequences of anguish, alarm, and derision come as close as possible for absolute music to indicting its bloody history--eight CDs and over 30 works later.

Rückblick Moderne: 20th Century Orchestral Music represents as fine a look back at musical modernism as you're likely to get. And in what a lavish package! A tall box holding two multi-CD jewel boxes and a beautifully printed booklet with photographs of modern and postmodern architecture and extensive liner notes (in German). Even the CDs themselves look handsome. All the more amazing when you realize that the entire set was digitally recorded live--with coughs, turning pages, chair creaks, and vivid sound--during one week in 1998 in Stuttgart (where, it seems, you have to travel nowadays even to hear about this kind of music), by such groups as the RSO Saarbrücken and the Bamberger Symphoniker, led by Dennis Russell Davies, Michael Gielen, Heinz Holliger, and other risk takers. Each CD has been programmed around a theme; for example, "Explosion/Implosion" (featuring Varèse and Mahler's tone poem Totenfeier, later becoming the first movement of his Second Symphony) and "Minimal Postludien," which includes (heads up, completists) Philip Glass's Echorus for two solo violins and string orchestra and Ligeti's Ramifications. Stravinsky, who, like Schoenberg and Cage, appears to cast a long shadow over this imposing collection, remains one of the highlights: a sharp, fiercely erotic performance of Le Sacre by Lothar Zagrosek and the Stattsorchester Stuttgart that helps remind us how much modern music has done, in the face of controversy and disaster, to ground us in our humanity. --Robert Burns Neveldine

Customer Reviews:

BUT WHY?.......2002-05-15

At eight cds, this could have been a hefty set of 20th century orchestral music. But somewhere along the line, around the beginning of planning the festival I'm guessing, something went horribly wrong. There were eight concerts, each with a theme. The pieces chosen have often only a tenuous connection with the theme, if any. There are no women composers. There are no composers from Romania. There are no composers from the Czech Republic. There are no composers from Poland. That means no Gubuidulina, no Ana-Marie Avram, no Joan Tower. That means no Dumitrescu or Janacek or Lutoslawski. Can you believe it? A collection of twentieth century orchestral music with no Lutoslawski? Verily it boggleth the mind.

But so what? Are the pieces they did play well played? Well, sometimes. Gielen and Zender get predictably excellent results. But much of the rest sounds for all the world like first reads. Extremely sensitive and polished first reads to be sure, but no sense of piece qua piece, a thing with a shape from start to finish. (This is most apparent in the eccentric phrasing.) These are not the newer pieces, either, but Ives and Ravel and Bartok and Stravinsky. You know these people have played these pieces dozens of times. No excuse.

It's hard to fault a company (Col legno) that puts out so many fine performances of the likes of Helmut Lachenmann, but in this venture I really think they dropped the ball.

Great Recordings.......2000-12-30

I wish I could read in German! This is the only "flaw" of this edition, in my opinion: it seems to have a great booklet, but I can't read it. Otherwise, it is a great collection: excelent recordings, good choice of works. I find it an excelent intro to modern music.

A must for lovers of modern music.......2000-06-26

This 8 CD collection contains a wonderfully diverse selection of works that trace the development of music through the century. This set contains music form the pivotal artists from the beginning of the century; Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Stravinsky, Debussy, Bartok, Ives and Varese. Master from later in the century include; Messiaen, Carter, Boulez, Cage, Feldman, Kurtag, Schnittke, Glass, and Ligeti. From the late romanticism of Mahler, to the impressionism of Ravel and Debussy, the atonality of the Second Viennese, the neo-styles of Stravinsky, Kurtag, Schostakovich, and Schnittke, to the minimalism of Glass, this collection has it all. Also within this collection are some classic compositions by lesser known masters such as; Maderna, Nono, Kagel. Rihm, Zimmerman, Furrer, and Lachenmann to name a few. Dennis Russell Davies, Michael Gielen, Heinze Holliger, and Hans Zender conduct superb performances of most of these classics. There is much to cherich in this collection, and are many treasures to be discovered.

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