Elliott Carter: The Complete Music for Piano

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Opening with a fleshy, resonant version of "90+," which was nominated for a 1998 Grammy award, this Carter collection is special not only for Charles Rosen's execution but also for the CD-closing conversation between performer and composer. Rosen opens the chat with a demonstration of how harmonic dissonance at once backlights and highlights Carter's famed rhythmic explorations. And Carter tells him, "This is the way we experience many things, the idea that one thing comments on another constantly." That's how Carter's music is, also constantly: frontal harmonic shocks, whether ringing tremulously or jumping in bursts of flash--as in Rosen's read of the Piano Sonata--are in dialogue with silence, rhythmic twists, and plainly beautiful constructions that sound in-process. The addition of "90+" and Bridge's customary rounded, warm sonic spaciousness make this collection superior to Rosen's Etcetera Carter collection. And for a more restrained, abstract look at "90+," try Ursula Oppens's version. --Andrew Bartlett

Tracks:

90+
Pno Son: I. Maestoso
Pno Son: II. Andante
Night Fants
Elliot Carter And Charles Rosen In Conversation - Elliot Carter/Charles Rosen

Amazon.com

Opening with a fleshy, resonant version of "90+," which was nominated for a 1998 Grammy award, this Carter collection is special not only for Charles Rosen's execution but also for the CD-closing conversation between performer and composer. Rosen opens the chat with a demonstration of how harmonic dissonance at once backlights and highlights Carter's famed rhythmic explorations. And Carter tells him, "This is the way we experience many things, the idea that one thing comments on another constantly." That's how Carter's music is, also constantly: frontal harmonic shocks, whether ringing tremulously or jumping in bursts of flash--as in Rosen's read of the Piano Sonata--are in dialogue with silence, rhythmic twists, and plainly beautiful constructions that sound in-process. The addition of "90+" and Bridge's customary rounded, warm sonic spaciousness make this collection superior to Rosen's Etcetera Carter collection. And for a more restrained, abstract look at "90+," try Ursula Oppens's version. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

An Appassionata for the XXIst Century.......2007-07-06

When Beethoven composed his "Tempest" and "Appassionata" sonatas for piano, some of his contemporaries were shocked by the extremes in tempo and dynamics. Nowadays, our ears and sensibilities have grown accustomed to Beethoven's sudden changes of tempo and mood. This is precisely how listeners in the end of the XXIst Century will probably feel about Carter's piano music. We are fortunate to have the learned and committed reading of Charles Rosen to the extraordinary piano works by Elliot Carter. The center piece of this record is Carter's Piano Sonata. Written in 1946, it is the basis for a lot of what became Carter's trademark: rapid mood changes and elaborate metric modulations. What is most impressive is that Carter achieved this effect in a piano sonata. Carter himself has said: "It was a piece that was the beginning of a new trend in my music which was I should say, the gradual elimination of a definite scheme of tonality. In the piano sonata it wavers between two keys a semi-tone apart, and you never can tell which key it's going to end up in, or where it goes." The overall effect is striking. One one hand, it appears that all the expressive possibilities of the piano are explored at once. But listening to the sonata with an open mind produces a different impression. You fell transported in the same magic world as Beethoven and Liszt. At the same time, you feel that it is possible to compose enchanting music in an entirely new way.

Excellent recording of a modern classic.......2004-09-03

Having loved the Carter Piano Sonata since first hearing it years ago, and on learning that the really fine pianist (and equally accomplished music scholar) Charles Rosen had made a
recent recording of it, I picked it up right away. And I was
not disappointed. This is an excellent performance of a modern classic.

lively atonal music.......2002-07-09

This is not dry academic music but exciting music, performed by Charles Rosen with energy and surprises. It is great to hear Mr Carter's interview on the last track, talking about music.
Here is the Man!

Fine playing of three piano masterworks.......2000-04-21

Almost every CD of new works should feature a conversation with the composer. There never was a time when this wasn't necessary. Rosen is a great question-asker, and Carter creates a context for us out here with reflections from the history of music. And such gems as Carter's interest in jazz is discussed, the freedom from the tyranny of the barline,improvisation and his interests in early Renaissance music where again the pulse of a regularly recurring downbeat was blurred.I don't see any jazz in Carter,but then he does say that music today is not modern enough,I thought was a good perspective. But all this piano music can be encountered with these simple ideas in mind. The Piano Sonata was Carter's first success, and this piece reflects the times,perhaps like a dialogue amongst composers, something that is still part of this scene today.The lyrical with tonality leftovers is here you may hear Aaron Copland(however only in its surface features.No Carter was finding his own voice and this is a sprawling romantic gesturing piece with flights of virtuosity. The Six-Eighth feel is utilized to escape the severe roaring lower register octave moments,which begins the piece,much like the Brahms F minor Sonata, in fact the first movement is like a dialogue between the sustained piano sound and the arpeggiated chord.Carter was not afraid of overtaxing the extreme higher registers as well,where the moments almost turn etude-like. The second movement with its open lyrical sonorities may remind you of the Copland Sonata especially the way it resolves itself with the presto metric changes in break neck finale. Night Fantasies was a quadruple dedication;Ursula Oppens, Gilbert Kalish,Paul Jacobs and Charles Rosen,all marvelous pianists who have made their careers exclusivily with new academic bound music. The nocturnal concept of the Night was a means of invoking the cross again between the sustained sound and the arpeggiated, and Carter's music always works best with a programmatic element at work to guide his opaque sonoric abstractions.But Carter's structural plan is much more complex than that, at least from the confines of his writing desk. There are many piano textures at work here,some 12 different piano sonorities,broken chords,register displacements,internal changes of single tones,staccato with sustained tones,single tones interrupting a sustained tone, and always with a penchant for interrupting each others moments regarless of where tones are situated on the piano, like a fantasia with an all interval 88 chord scheme as a structural base. There is great analytical diversity here seemingly endless to discuss, that I suspect will keep the scholarly lights burning on the Commons. But simply listening to the work does evoke and suggest this sense of the fantasia noctural with simple sustained single tones very separated so we hear them clearly. 90+ is shorter work equally brilliant sounding,but more reserved almost introspective but not any less structurally vigorous.It is based on 90 staccato tones utilized again as points of interruptions. What this approach does is propell the work forward, similar to light, gentle lighting or electric charges cattle-prodding the durational frame.This keeps the work moving where nothing ever really lands anywhere with rhythmic security until the final pages of the work. Rosen is a Carter pianist and understands his music very well and brings a clarity and goal oriented conviction to his playing,always featuring the surface aspects of this music, the roaring piano sound,allowing the full weight of the sonority to be heard,but controlled and balanced.Rosen's penchant for Romantic piano literature also helps infuse his playing of Carter with this conceptual emotive base the music needs, for Carter is a thoroughly modernist romantic.

Average customer rating:

American Song Potpourri
Kalish plays like a pig.
a beautiful rendition of 20th Century American Song

Songs of America

Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Beautiful Child Of Song
The Three Poems By Robert Frost: Dust Of Snow
The Three Poems By Robert Frost: The Rose Family
Four American Indian Songs, Op. 45, No. 4: The Moon Drops Low
Home Thoughts
White Moon
Joy
The Widow's Lament In Springtime
Three Solitary Songs: American Primitive
The Sleeper
Mutability: My Father
Nothin' But Love
I Love You Truly
Her Greatest Charm
The Junk Man
Lost
Five Songs For Contralto: Little Four Paws
Time To The Old: Dozing On The Lawn
Song (She Is Not Fair)
The All-Enduring
Lethe
Poems Of Love And The Rain: Interlude
Time, You Old Gypsy Man
Suite, Three Ladies: Grandma (Millie)
Stein Times Seven: Stein Times Seven: No. 6
Cabaret Songs: Waitin
Twelve Poems Of Emily Dickinson: There Came A Wind Like A Bugle
Sunrise, For Voice, Violin, And Piano

Customer Reviews:

American Song Potpourri.......2000-08-01

The 28 songs on this CD provide a broad spectrum of American art songs. JanDeGaetani possesses a beautiful mezzo-soprano voice and ideally expresses the proper emotions these songs require. Gilbert Kalish's piano supplies the necessary support without getting in the way of the singer. All in all, this is a good collaboration.

Kalish plays like a pig........1999-12-02

While I enjoyed De Gaetani's singing, Kalish's piano playing reminded me of a player piano.

a beautiful rendition of 20th Century American Song.......1999-06-06

This is a great album. It spans the spectrum of 20th Century American music from the tonality and romanticism of Stephen Foster to the experimentality of John Cage.

Jan DeGaetani and Gilbert Kalish, with their understanding and sensitivity to the music of their time, combine to form a duo that sets the standard for interpretation of this music.

Students, professionals, and general classical music lovers will cherish this CD in their library.

Tracks:

Warble For Lilac-Time
Voyage
Three Poems of Robert Frost: Dust of Snow
Three Poems of Robert Frost: The Rose Family
Three Poems of Robert Frost: The Line-Gang
Tarantella
Emblems
The Harmony of Morning
Heart Not So Heavy As Mine
Musicians Wrestle Everywhere
To Music
The Defense Or Corinth

Customer Reviews:

A perfect example of Carter's underrated early work........1999-01-01

The pieces contained on this disc may well be among the most underrated in 20th Century American music. While the sound and performances on this disc leave a bit to be desired (when will Dawn Upshaw record the brilliant "Warble for Lilac Time" or "Voyage"?) this is still an entirely worthwile disc in that it contains nearly all of Carter's early vocal music. In addition, these are the arrangements for large ensembles. Recordings of some of these works arranged for soloist and piano are available, but the orchestral versions are more effective.

It is hard to understand why these pieces continue to be so little-known. They are very accessible, easily describe as beautiful--words not often associated with Carter's post-1948 output. Carter's early style more closely approximates Barber, or the neo-romanticism of Stravinsky than the starkly dissonant, incredibly complex music most listeners think of now as typical Carter. The intricacy of Carter's writing is still what sets it apart, though. This collection's most straightforwardly lyrical selection, "Voyage", is far more tightly woven, and less obvious than, say, Barber's "Knoxville:Summer of 1915". "Three Poems of Robert Frost" makes fresh, daring use of the guitar with soprano and orchestra. "Musicians Wrestle Everywhere" and "To Music" are masterworks for unaccompanied mixed choir. All the pieces mentioned thus far deserve a place in the standard repertoire of ensembles capable of playing them.

Tracks:

Quiet City - Celia Nicklin/Michael Lair
On The Town: Three Dance Episodes: Lonely Town (Pas De Deux) - New York PO/Leonard Bernstein
Hymn and Fuguing Tune No.2: Hymn - Boston SO/Serge Koussevitzky
Elegy - Arditti Str Qt
Str Qt: Adagio - Manhattan Str Qt
Dream - Maria Newman
Lullaby - Manhattan Str Qt
A Night Piece - Diane Gold/Alard Qt
Qt: III. Movt - Viklarbo Chamber Ens
Ste From The River: Village Of The Virgins - Detroit SO/Neeme Jarvi
Grand Canyon Ste: Painted Desert - Detroit SO/Antal Dorati
Two Contemplations: The Unanswered Question - Milwaukee SO/Lukas Foss

Tracks:

Cavelleria Rusticana: Intermezzo - Czecho-Slovak RSO/Alexander Rahbari
Clair De Lune - Czecho-Slovak RSO/Keith Clark
Prld V - Camerata Transylvanica/Gyorgy Selmeczi
Berceuse - Czecho-Slovak RSO/Keith Clark
Son No.1: II. Movt - Rossini Ens, Budapest/Andras Kiss
Con in c, RV.425: Largo - Geza Imre
La Boutique Fant: Nocturne - Camerata Transylvanica/Gyorgy Selmeczi
Crisantemi - Failoni Orch/Geza Overfrank
Str Qt: II. Movt - Failoni Orch/Geza Overfrank
Notturno, Op.70 No.1: Celestial Harmonies Adagio I: - Czecho-Slovak State PO Of Kosice/Johannes Wildner
Str Qt: III. Movt - Kodaly Qt
Thais: Meditation - Janos Selmeczi
Str Qt: III. Movt - Kodaly Qt
Gymnopedie No.1 - Czecho-Slovak RSO Bratislava/Ondrej Lenard

Tracks:

Pno Son No.14 in c# Op.27, No.2: Adagio Sostenuto - Jeno Jando
Cl Qnt in B flat Op34: Fant - Kalman Berkes/Auer Str Qt
Romance No.2 in F, Op.50 - Takako Nishizaki
Songs Without Words No.41 in A, Op.85 No.5 - Peter Nagy
Hebraic Melodies Op.47: Kol Nidrei Adagio - Maria Kliegel
Fant in C, Op.17: Langsam Getragen - Denes Varjon
Qnt in b, Op.115: Adagio - Jozsef Balogh
Siegfried Idyll - Polish National RSO/Johannes Wildner

Tracks:

Missa Pro Defunctis: Agnus Dei - Louis Halsey Singers/Louis Halsey
O Magnum Mysterium - St. John's College Chor, Cambridge/George Guest
Crucifixus For 8 Voices - St. John's College Chor, Cambridge/George Guest
Psalm 23 - St. John's College Chor, Cambridge/George Guest
Jesus, Meine Zuversicht, BWV 728: Chor Prld - Peter Herford
Expectans Expectavi - Ian Crabbe/St. John's College Chor, Cambridge/George Guest
Four Sacred Pieces: Ave Maria - Los Angeles Master Chor/Roger Wagner
Adagio - Peter Planyavsky
Ave Verum Corpus KV 618 - Peter White/Alastair Roberts/St. John's College Chor, Cambridge/George Guest
Trois Nouvelle Pieces, Op.87 No.2: Mystique - Jane Parker-Smith
Requiem, Op.48: In Paradisum - St. John's College Chor, Cambridge/George Guest
Requiem: Lux Aeterna - Westminster Cathedral Boys Chor/London Sym Chor/Richard Hickox
Le Banquet Celeste - Simon Preston
Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op.45: Selig Sind, Die Da Leid Tragen - Chor O fRadio Suisse Romande And Pro Arte De Lausanne/Ernest Ansermet
Org Son, Op.65 No.4: Andante Religioso - Roger Fisher
Matthaus-Passion BWV 244: O Haupt Voll Blut Und Wunden - Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chor/Gerhard Wilhelm

Album Description

What makes music Romantic? Like beauty, Romanticism is in the eye - or ear - of the beholder. As a musical movement, it is generally associated with nineteenth century Europe though the Romantic movement actually originated in Germany. In this exquisite trilogy of romantic classical music, The Romantic Approach explores the origin of music Romanticism, French and Italian romantic music, and 20th century American romantic music written after the end of the Romantic era.

The first volume in this trilogy, The Romantic Approach: A Special Collection of 20th Century American Music may have surprised listeners who felt that contemporary America has produced very little Romantic art. The diverse roster of this century's finest composers also reflects the diversity in the music, from jazz influence to classical. This collection of works echo the lyrical, tonal style of European classical music of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Romantic Approach, Volume Two: A Special Collection of Classical Music from Italy and France showcases the very heart of Romantic literature. Of all the countries in the world, France and Italy have been those most associated with things romantic; even the sounds of their languages are musical, and that songlike quality has certainly colored much of the music of these two countries. Some of the works and composers on this volume will be familiar to opera lovers, a central part of the musical life of these countries. It is rounded out with unjustly neglected masterpieces from several gifted French and Italian composers.

The Romantic Approach, Volume Three: Classical Music from Germany takes us back to the origin of the Romantic movement - to Germany - and to the emotional works of its greatest composers. These composers could move their listeners without having to resort to painting a particular image in sound. This is music that can speak to the emotions without dictating which emotion you should feel; in fact, it can evoke a different vision or story in each listener.

Album Details

A Mix of French, Italian and American Styles all which Explore the Origin of Musical Romanticism. Features Such Well Known Artists as George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and More.

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