The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 1: Vocal Works (1975-1981)

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
This reading of In Sleep, In Thunder has tenor Jon Garrison singing Carter's musical setting of six Robert Lowell poems. Speculum Musicae grasps the piece's broad-based low-end sweeps expertly, flanging when Garrison's voice seems to unlock and bellow. The music shudders as the tenor considers Lowell's lines, emphasizing the conflicted poetics with interjections that interrupt each other shatteringly. While the Lowell poems allow Carter a fairly costly emotional investigation of personality and conflict, A Mirror on Which to Dwell peeks in on the development of sonic characters, again taken on with snappy know-it-allness of musical directions this side of World War II. The music chases itself, with woodwind blurts shadowing fast-moving string slashes and percussive piano washes, all occasionally wafting into dusty quiet--a recessive sonic area that works wonderfully in relation to Elizabeth Bishop's texts. Very little in these pieces resolves itself, and the music's sum effect is a multiplicity of tonal characters that create their own space, all the while in uneasy proximity to the other spaces. With the Three Poems of Robert Frost (composed in 1942) moving with Patrick Mason's baritone bellow and Syringa sung by mezzo-soprano Katherine Ciesinski (texts by John Ashberry), the palette of tonal ranges and dynamic changes is extremely wide on this set. --Andrew Bartlett

Album Description
Between 1975 and 1981, Elliot Carter produced his remarkable vocal trilogy: A Mirror on Which to Dwell, Syringa, and In Sleep, in Thunder. Bridge's CD marks the first integral recording of the three works, and also includes the premiere recording of Carter's 1980 orchestration, Three Poems of Robert Frost. These recordings were made under the composer's supervision, and feature Speculum Musicae, with whom Carter has worked closely during the past twenty years.

The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 1: Vocal Works (1975-1981), Music, Jan Opalach, Elliott Carter, David Starobin, Donald Palma, William Purvis, Catherine Ciesinski, Speculum Musicae, Christine Schadeberg, Jon Garrison, Atonal, Choral, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Classical Vocals, Modern Composition, Solo Voice(s) and Orchestra, Solo Voice(s) and Small Ensemble, Two Solo Voices with Small Ensemble, Vocal
The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 1: Vocal Works (1975-1981)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • One of the most important collections of modern vocal music.
 The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 1: Vocal Works (1975-1981)

Manufacturer: Bridge
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:
  1. Elliott Carter: The Complete music for Piano
  2. The Music of Elliott Carter Vol. 7; Boston Concerto, Cello Concerto, ASKO Concerto, Dialogues
  3. The Music of Elliott Carter, Volume Four
  4. The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 6
  5. The Music of Elliott Carter, Volume Five - Nine Compositions (1994-2002)

ASIN: B000003GI9
Release Date: 1993-02-19

Tracks:

  1. Dust of Snow
  2. The Rose Family
  3. The Line Gang
  4. Anaphora
  5. Argument
  6. Sandpiper
  7. Insomnia
  8. View of the Capitol from the Library of Congress
  9. O Breath
  10. Syringa
  11. Dolphin
  12. La Ignota
  13. Harriet
  14. Dies Irae
  15. Careless Night
  16. In Genesis

Amazon.com essential recording

This reading of In Sleep, In Thunder has tenor Jon Garrison singing Carter's musical setting of six Robert Lowell poems. Speculum Musicae grasps the piece's broad-based low-end sweeps expertly, flanging when Garrison's voice seems to unlock and bellow. The music shudders as the tenor considers Lowell's lines, emphasizing the conflicted poetics with interjections that interrupt each other shatteringly. While the Lowell poems allow Carter a fairly costly emotional investigation of personality and conflict, A Mirror on Which to Dwell peeks in on the development of sonic characters, again taken on with snappy know-it-allness of musical directions this side of World War II. The music chases itself, with woodwind blurts shadowing fast-moving string slashes and percussive piano washes, all occasionally wafting into dusty quiet--a recessive sonic area that works wonderfully in relation to Elizabeth Bishop's texts. Very little in these pieces resolves itself, and the music's sum effect is a multiplicity of tonal characters that create their own space, all the while in uneasy proximity to the other spaces. With the Three Poems of Robert Frost (composed in 1942) moving with Patrick Mason's baritone bellow and Syringa sung by mezzo-soprano Katherine Ciesinski (texts by John Ashberry), the palette of tonal ranges and dynamic changes is extremely wide on this set. --Andrew Bartlett

Album Description

Between 1975 and 1981, Elliot Carter produced his remarkable vocal trilogy: A Mirror on Which to Dwell, Syringa, and In Sleep, in Thunder. Bridge's CD marks the first integral recording of the three works, and also includes the premiere recording of Carter's 1980 orchestration, Three Poems of Robert Frost. These recordings were made under the composer's supervision, and feature Speculum Musicae, with whom Carter has worked closely during the past twenty years.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars One of the most important collections of modern vocal music........1999-07-04

I like Andrew Bartlett's descriptions of "In Sleep, In Thunder" and "Mirror on Which to Dwell." As with every other musical form Carter has chosen to work in, the vocal works are among the most important in their genre for the second half-century. Bartlett doesn't talk much about "Syringa," though. In fact, it's the most original and striking work of the disc. Imagine a sort of film with a narrator calmly telling us the story of Orpheus in sort of hip modern jargon, but superimposed on the real thing--Orpheus passionately declaiming or agonizingly wailing, and all the while a little chamber orchestra is making wickedly flickering music. Everything happens simultaneously, as if we were in two or three worlds, eons apart, at the same time. This is Carter's chamber opera (in the sense that Kurtag's great "Samuel Becket: What is the Word" can be thought of as an opera), and until his new opera (composed last year at the age of 89)is released on disc, it's all we've got for a Carter opera.

Track Listings:

  1. The Sound of Glory [Hybrid SACD] [Hybrid SACD]
  2. Verdi - Alzira / Mescheriakova, Vargas, Gavanelli, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Fabio Luisi
  3. Verdi: Arias, Vol. 2
  4. Viaggio Italiano [Extra tracks] [Import] [Limited Edition]
  5. Waking in New York - A Musical Portrait of Allen Ginsberg by Composer Elodie Lauten
  6. A Christmas Legacy
  7. A Very Classical Christmas
  8. Alfano: Liriche da Tagore
  9. Andrew Violette: Piano Sonatas 1 & 7
  10. Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 4

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Land of 1000 Dances: The Complete Rampart Recordings [Original recording remastered]

On the Beautiful Blue Danube: Vienna waltzes & Polkas

Picture This

Homage to Africa [Special Edition]

Live from the Other Side [Import]

Play That Funk

Petula/Portrait [Import]

Music Trumpet & Organ

Milestone

Playing to the Moon [Import]

Realm of Shadows

Mano a Mano, Vol. 2

Plena Mix Non Stop-Bailable

Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 7

All Soul