Elliott Carter: String Quartets Nos. 2, 3 and 4

Review Elliott Carter, A Nonesuch Retrospective (Nonesuch, four discs) and String Quartets Nos. 2, 3 and 4 performed by Pacifica Quartet (Naxos). Time for a little musical heresy: What if Elliott Carter were a minor composer with major ideas, major musical bloodlines and major musical reputation? The fact that he is now the first unquestioned titan of American classical composition to reach the age of 100 has done nothing but underline the latter many times over. "Tough to play, tough to listen to" is the cliche about Carter's music and, like so many cliches, it bears more than a little truth. It's seldom even attempted unless by those who intend to do it justice. And that is where this exceptional four-disc box from Nonesuch and single budget disc of his later quartets on Naxos come in. "Tough to play" isn't an issue for any of these performances that give the music its optimal opportunity to be heard. Under the leadership of the late Teresa (Tracy) Sterne and then Bob Hurwitz, Nonesuch has vigorously championed Carter's music from the outset. Which means that the Nonesuch box goes all the way from the neoclassic "Minotaur" of the '50s to his stern, powerful expressionist breakthrough first piano sonata and quartet to the works of the composer in his '70s, including the "Night Fantasies" for piano, played by the estimable Paul Jacobs. It was the great critic Peter Yates, who called Carter a "cautious radical" that means to some ears his predecessor Ives seems so much wilder, bolder and more evocative and Carter's near-exact contemporary from France Messiaen seems vastly more brilliant. Added to the Nonesuch set is James Levine's DGG recording of Carter's "Variations for Orchestra" from 1955. The Naxos disc is everything Carter could want from his latter quartets. -- Buffalonews.com, Jeff Simon, March 8, 2009 The Pacifica Quartet completes its cycle of Carter's landmark string quartets with Nos. 2, 3 and 4 for the Naxos label (****), a companion to an earlier CD of Carter's First and Fifth quartets. Carter's quartets are famously knotty evocations of democracy in action, filled with argumentative dialogue, stubborn individualism and constantly migrating tempos. The Pacifica untangles the complexities and locates the emotional core with striking ease but without unnecessarily prettifying the music. In the Second Quartet, arguably Carter's most definitive piece, the Pacifica reveals an unforced muscularity that sounds positively relaxed compared to the frightening intensity of the classic 1960 recording by the Juilliard String Quartet. The Pacifica doesn't make these works sound easy, but it does make them sound natural -- freep.com (Detroit Free Press), Mark Stryker, March 8, 2009 There's a funny thing that happens when a cultural figure like Elliott Carter sees his own centenary: he outlives entire eras of musical thought and invective, multiples of them, many of which he was a major part of in the first place. From the scant number of Americana- and neoclassical-infused works of Carter's "youth" (mind that he was in his 30s when they were being written) to the torrent of works from the past decade*, he has lived through the fads, lived past the fads, and arrived at the point where the fads had nothing to do with his music anymore. This is not to say that Carter is old hat, so to speak; the premieres, celebrations, and television appearances should be enough to disprove that. But rather that Elliott Carter, the man and composer, is no longer a symbol of anything particularly threatening to anyone. The man and his ilk do come from a period where a certain (exceptionally small, it should be noted) segment of society felt put upon by the dominance of his pedaled wares; but the Euro-tinged modernism he espoused after World War II eventually evolved into a new beast, one a little less anxious for philippics and lofty dialectics, and one with less control over acceptable discourse and fellowships. Musical artists in different venues have had less and less of a contra-Carter cause as time wore on. Sure, there are those around who hold long grudges, but those of us who are unencumbered by that history, be it through youth or culturo-political clemency, can afford to see Carter's work through a prism that's as unencumbered by outside factors as any composer has been allowed during their lifetime. Which makes the works on the Pacifica Quartet's second and cycle-completing disc an interesting case. Pacifica owns Carter's five string quartets, as anyone who has heard them do the complete set in concert can attest. But for the Carter virgin, they can be a bit overwhelming, especially the three quartets presented on this disc. Even without historical baggage, the musical baggage is still there; is there any piece that's more difficult in the quartet repertoire than Carter's Third? More so than ever, Carter seems to have no interest in entertaining. Whether he does or not is more a consequence of the listener's own
ASIN: B001NZA04M
VSKU: DBV.B001NZA04M.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Pacifica Quartet|Elliott Carter
Binding: Audio cd