Currently spinning his Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei, the first movement to be precise, and enjoying it a lot - it has some nice lines with much faster-moving stuff going on woven around those lines. From what I recall I find the long slow movement a bit ponderous for my liking, but we'll see.
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The first time I heard the Adagio Tenebroso (before the symphony was completed) an aeroplane droned over the coincert hall just as the final note was dying away, adding a curiuously musical epilogue. I suppose Cage would say that was part of the music. It was pleasanter than the mobile phone which went off just as Simon Rattle was starting Le Sacre du Printemps once. Both these occasions were broadcastComment
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Now playing: "Late works" (Ondine) mostly featuring the BBC SO conducted by Oliver Knussen, and including Carter's very last work Epigrams for piano trio (Faust/Queyras/Aimard), which to me does have a sense of the end coming soon, although of course not in anything like a tragic way - its sparseness seems to indicate something like "I've said pretty much everything I had to say, but before I go here are a few quick ideas you might like to hear".Comment
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I went and ordered a second-hand copy for a fiver - it arrived today and Interventions is currently spinning. Enjoying it very much so far, I think of these late works as like modernist Haydn for their facility, lucidity and lyricism... they are well-balanced and inventive.Originally posted by RichardB View PostComment
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I’ve been listening to the first string quartet. It’s an enormous and (for me) consistently engaging piece of music which flows like a stream. It’s absolutely brimming over with ideas - fresh new ideas. It’s not like contrapuntal Carter, and it’s not like lyrical late Carter. Nonetheless, a good thing to hear!Comment
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I think that it represented the peak of his achievement at the time of its completion. It's a real challenge to bring off (as of course is his Third especially although its demands on the individual players and ensemble are very different), which I suppose is sadly why not many quartets include it in their repertoires. I read somewhere that he said hat on each of the occasions when he was contemplating writing a quartet he would revisit those of Haydn; he must have felt good reason for that although, to me, this First Quartet (not really his first but the one that we know as such) is the closest that he ever came to Beethoven's quartet writing...Originally posted by Mandryka View PostComment
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I must say, The Composers Quartet recording is very good. Your comment about Beethoven is interesting - what are you getting at?Comment
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I think I will give that a try, I've always found Carter's quartets pretty tough listening, although I'm not generally that keen on 20th century quartets, aside from Bartók, Ligeti, Xenakis, Janáček, Scelsi and Ferneyhough.Originally posted by Mandryka View PostComment
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I have now found six recordings of it
Juilliard
Walden
Composers
Diotima (live, not commercially released)
Arditti
PacificaComment
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