Christopher Oldfather

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
These quartets are Juilliard specialties, and anyone wanting to hear this music played with a near ideal combination of virtuosity and humanity need look no further. Carter's quartets are not for the musically faint of heart: they are uncompromisingly thorny, intricate pieces that require lots of intense, dedicated listening. Very few people doubt their seriousness--or even their claims to musical greatness--but just as few people enjoy listening to them. Perhaps this spectacular set will encourage the adventurous to give them a shot. They're worth the time. --David Hurwitz

Elliott Carter: The Four String Quartets / Duo for Violin & Piano - The Juilliard String Quartet / Christopher Oldfather, Music, Elliott Carter, Robert Mann, Joel Krosnick, Samuel [viola] Rhodes, Joel Smirnoff, Christopher Oldfather, The Juilliard String Quartet, Chamber, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Quartet for Four String Instruments, Violin with Keyboard

Elliott Carter: The Four String Quartets / Duo for Violin & Piano - The Juilliard String Quartet / Christopher Oldfather
Average customer rating:

composer & quartet work well together

a muscular interpretation, a brilliant recording!

Not the first choice due to a lackluster 1st Quartet

Largeness,vast with weight of conception

Juillard Quartet performs Carter's masterworks

Elliott Carter: The Four String Quartets / Duo for Violin & Piano - The Juilliard String Quartet / Christopher Oldfather
Robert Mann , Joel Krosnick , Samuel [viola] Rhodes , Joel Smirnoff , Christopher Oldfather , and The Juilliard String Quartet
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
All Works by Carter | Carter, Elliott | ( C ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
General Modern | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Violin | Strings | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
Classical Instrumental Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0000027J7
Release Date: 1991-09-26

Tracks:

String Quartet No.1 (1951): I. Fantasia: Maestoso
String Quartet No.1 (1951): I. Allegro scorrevole
String Quartet No.1 (1951): II. Allegro scorrevole
String Quartet No.1 (1951): II. Adagio - Variations
String Quartet No.1 (1951): III. Variations
String Quartet No. 2 (1959): Introduction
String Quartet No. 2 (1959): I. Allegro fantastico
Cadenza for Viola
String Quartet No. 2 (1959): II. Presto scherzando
String Quartet No. 2 (1959): Cadenza for Cello
String Quartet No. 2 (1959): III. Andante espressivo
String Quartet No. 2 (1959): Cadenza for Violin I
String Quartet No. 2 (1959): IV. Allegro
String Quartet No. 2 (1959): Conclusion

Tracks:

String Quartet No. 3 (1971): I
String Quartet No. 3 (1971): II
String Quartet No. 3 (1971): III
String Quartet No. 3 (1971): IV
String Quartet No. 3 (1971): V
String Quartet No. 3 (1971): VI
String Quartet No. 4 (1986): Appassionato
String Quartet No. 4 (1986): Scherzando (stesso tempo)
String Quartet No. 4 (1986): Lento (stesso tempo)
String Quartet No. 4 (1986): Presto
Duo For Violin And Piano (1974): I
Duo For Violin And Piano (1974): II
Duo For Violin And Piano (1974): III
Duo For Violin And Piano (1974): IV
Duo For Violin And Piano (1974): V

Amazon.com essential recording

These quartets are Juilliard specialties, and anyone wanting to hear this music played with a near ideal combination of virtuosity and humanity need look no further. Carter's quartets are not for the musically faint of heart: they are uncompromisingly thorny, intricate pieces that require lots of intense, dedicated listening. Very few people doubt their seriousness--or even their claims to musical greatness--but just as few people enjoy listening to them. Perhaps this spectacular set will encourage the adventurous to give them a shot. They're worth the time. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

composer & quartet work well together.......2002-05-21

The music is a brilliant, excellent investigation into one of the 20th century's new aesthetics in music. This cd also features a virtuoso interpretation & fine recording.

a muscular interpretation, a brilliant recording!.......2001-08-23

The Juilliard Quartet, with the supervision of Carter himself, recorded this version of the Four Quartets in 1991, only a few years after the Arditti Quartet had recorded them for Etcetera after touring with Carter. What a contrast!

The JQ performs these modernist masterpieces with a muscular, machine-like relentlessness, highlighting the structure. Their interpretation is masculine, in the traditional meaning of the word, while the AQ's interpretation is more lyrical and fluid, with broader vibrato, emphasizing feeling -- in a word, more traditionally feminine. If I had to choose one, I would take the Arditti performance, (and I agree that the JQ's tempo on the First is too slow) but they are both stellar. However, there are other considerations. The recording quality of the Juilliard Quartet on Sony is magnificent, while the AQ on Etcetera is much less crisp and clear. And the JQ/Sony package is all you could ask for, with a 28-page booklet extensively explaining the works, even diagramming the notoriously complex Third Quartet.

I would hate to have to choose -- I heartily recommend both versions. But the JQ version, all things considered, has the best claim to being the "standard." You must hear it!

Not the first choice due to a lackluster 1st Quartet.......2000-08-13

As far as I'm concerned, there is no one recording cycle that completely satisfies. However, I'd have to give the nod to the Arditti Quartet if for no other reason than this Julliard recording contains a vastly inferior interpretation of the 1st Quartet. Since that work is the key to getting inside of Elliott Carter's sound world ( I suppose one could argue for the Cello Sonata or Etudes for Woodwind Quartet ), it is crucial that a newcomer be introduced to a recording that does that particular piece justice. This is not the recording to do it. Coming from my experience with the Arditti and Composers Quartet versions, the 1993 Julliard is taken at too slow a tempo; the music seems bloated or bogged down and loses my attention. I'm not saying a newcomer couldn't possibly enjoy the performance; I just think the Arditti presents the music in a far better light. And I WOULD be surprised if those with prior experience with Carter prefer the 1994 Julliard interpretation of the 1st Quartet over the others previously recorded.

The Julliard's 2nd and 3rd Quartets are much more to my liking. However, they are completely blown away by their prior ( LP ) recordings of the same works in 1974 ( world premiere for the 3rd ), which are electrifying! I hope SONY considers releasing those recordings on CD at some point in the future.

RE the 4th; I've never warmed to this piece so I can't really say which ensemble takes pride of place. The Julliard haven't included the 5th Quartet ( 1995 ) since these sessions took place prior to Carter's completion of that work. The Arditti HAVE recorded it (Montaigne), making theirs the only complete cycle of Carter quartets available. Their 2nd & 3rd, although differing quite a bit in approach, don't seem MORE convincing than the 1993 Julliard ( the 1974 Julliard is, as I've implied, a world apart ).

Elliott Carter, for me, has composed the finest string quartet cycle since Bartok ( Brian Ferneyhough may be the next link in the "quartet chain" ). I urge people with a love for adventurous, well structured and moving music to check ALL of his work out. Currently 91 years old, he's certainly one of the most consistent composers in terms of the sheer quality of invention displayed piece after piece for the last half century. Nearly every one of his works since 1950 is either of ground-breaking importance ( Quartets, Double Concerto, Night Fantasies, Symphonia ) or at least of great interest ( Variations for Orch, A Mirror on Which to Dwell, Brass Quintet, numerous solo pieces ). I'd recommend starting with the Piano or Cello Sonatas ( mid/late 1940's ) if you still don't feel comfortable with composers working in a "serial" or quasi-serial vein but like Bartok and Stravinsky ( c. 1910-1930 ).

Largeness,vast with weight of conception.......2000-08-12

I stand somewhere in the center of all these reviews,it depends on what one expects to find in these Quartets, their "Visibility" factor. The First Quartet unquestionably broke vast amounts of conceptual ground in its originality and almost monumental in posture.The fast continuous treble,violin lines approaching utter madness although from a vastly different perspective than the European sensibility was music never heard before. Perhaps the last movement of Carter's "Piano Sonata" was a glimpse at this world. From that perspective the Juilliard here,especially with Krosnick's thick brooding cello timbre,gives/renders great weight to this First Quartet(1951),where de Sarem of Arditti has more a quicksilver,brighter,more wistful sound,not intending to blend with his brethren. To strike a judgemental posture the Arditti had recorded the Quartets during their first arduous backbreaking tour of the United States in 1988,with Carter,so I agree there is an opaqueness,a confused demeanor to their reading dating back to those times. But not any less compelling or fascinating,for their ferocious technique coerces them to transcend their lack of understadning through simply living with the work, there is no substitute for that. The Juilliard had lived longer with these works.

Juilliard here however reveals their sense of ultimate abandoned abstractedness in the Second Quartet(1959), a work which initially struck me as predating the First in gesture,scope and content. It is much more sparce,even dismal and bleak than the First Quartet without the overbearing weight and questioning violently spirit of the First. Juilliard I believe here understands this of the Second,however I'd like to hear Arditti play the Second today,with their penchant for independent role playing,violence and not afraid of making a noise,playing with guts unreservedly,for the independence of lines was an integral component of Carter's agenda here.

The Third leaves the First and Second in the dust, well some 20 years elapsed 1971,the date of the Third. And with Juilliard they turn the scope of this mind-boggling work apporaching symphonic shape with again, their large gestures always aimed at a traditional blending of timbres. Whereas Arditti would allow the shape of a timbre in the Third Quartet to expose itself.

Juillard Quartet performs Carter's masterworks.......2000-06-07

I think two Pulitzer Prizes (Second and Third quartets) speak for themselves. Carter's ever-challenging language requires a lot from the listener and a whole lot from the performer. Even harder than the execution of these works is the necessity to say something more profound than notation. The Juilliard Quartet is the perfect ensemble to do just that. Their long personal relationship with the works and almost effortless attention to the text make for an extraordinary result. This recording, aside from its historical significance, is a must-have for fans of highly-intense music-making and the great composers of our time and country.

Elliott Carter:the Four String Quartets; Duo for Violin & Piano

Average customer rating:

Elliott Carter:the Four String Quartets; Duo for Violin & Piano

Manufacturer: Sony Classical
ProductGroup: Classical
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000HWEW4G

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