Carter Chamber Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Elliott (Cook) Carter
Label: CPO
Magazine Review Date: 8/1998
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 55
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CPO999 453-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Quintet for Wind Instruments |
Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer
Christian Hommel, Oboe Dag Jensen, Bassoon David Smeyers, Clarinet Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer Michael Faust, Flute Volker Grewel, Horn |
(8) Etudes and a Fantasy |
Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer
Christian Hommel, Oboe Dag Jensen, Bassoon David Smeyers, Clarinet Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer Michael Faust, Flute |
Sonata |
Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer
Christian Hommel, Oboe Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer Ilton Wjuniski, Harpsichord Johannes Wohlmacher, Cello Michael Faust, Flute |
Esprit rude/Esprit doux |
Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer
David Smeyers, Clarinet Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer Michael Faust, Flute |
Enchanted Preludes |
Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer
Elliott (Cook) Carter, Composer Georg Faust, Cello Michael Faust, Flute |
Author: Arnold Whittall
This disc underlines the differences between the earlier and later Carters: the neo-classical disciple of Nadia Boulanger in the Wind Quintet and wind quartet Etudes, the senior expressionist in the two short duos. But there’s also an in-between Carter, and the most substantial and rewarding work here is the Sonata for flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord, written in 1952 immediately after the visionary First String Quartet in which Carter renounced easygoing neo-classicism, while reinforcing those virtues of control and clarity which he had learned from Boulanger.
The Quartet-Sonata, as it’s known, is a marvellous piece, brimming with musical energy and offering that unmistakable Carterian blend of toughness and refinement. It is rarely heard in the concert-hall, and this performance does the work justice. The recording solves most of its tricky balance problems, even though the wind instruments seem rather too closely miked, and the harpsichord has all the necessary features, as meticulously notated in the score.
The early pieces for wind ensemble are more lightweight, their rhythmic procedures more interesting than melody or harmony. Indeed, the Quintet from 1948 is not a million miles from the civilized pattern-making of a Jean Francaix: nothing wrong with that, but it’s just not Carter! The rewards of his rejection of such traditional thinking are abundantly evident inEsprit rude/Esprit doux (1984) and Enchanted Preludes (1988). Other excellent recordings of these works can be found (the Preludes on Bridge, for example), but it is good to have alternatives, and the inclusion of the Quartet-Sonata makes this a particularly valuable disc.'
The
The early pieces for wind ensemble are more lightweight, their rhythmic procedures more interesting than melody or harmony. Indeed, the Quintet from 1948 is not a million miles from the civilized pattern-making of a Jean Francaix: nothing wrong with that, but it’s just not Carter! The rewards of his rejection of such traditional thinking are abundantly evident in
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