Carter, Pacifica Quartet - Elliott Carter: String Quartets Nos. 2, 3 and 4
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CD Details
Artist: Carter, Pacifica QuartetComposer: Carter
Performer: Pacifica Quartet
Conductor: --
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2009-02-24
Music Label: NAXOS AMERICAN
Soundtracks:
- String Quartet No. 2: Introduction
- String Quartet No. 2: 1. Allegro fantastico
- String Quartet No. 2: Cadenza for viola
- String Quartet No. 2: 2. Presto scherzando
- String Quartet No. 2: Cadenza for cello
- String Quartet No. 2: 3. Andante espressivo
- String Quartet No. 2: Cadenza for violin 1
- String Quartet No. 2: 4. Allegro
- String Quartet No. 2: Conclusion
- String Quartet No. 3: Duo 2. Maestoso (giusto tempo) - Grazioso - Giusto, meccanico / Duo 1. Furioso (quasi rubato sempr
- String Quartet No. 3: Duo 2. Giusto, meccanico (cont.) - Scorrevole / Duo 1. Giocoso
- String Quartet No. 3: Duo 2. Scorrevole (cont.) - Giusto, meccanico - Grazioso / Duo 1. Leggerissimo - Furioso
- String Quartet No. 3: Duo 2. Grazioso (cont.) - Maestoso / Duo 1. Giocoso - Andante espressivo
- String Quartet No. 3: Duo 2. Largo tranquillo - Appassionato - Largo tranquillo / Duo 1. Andante espressivo (cont.) - Leg
- String Quartet No. 3: Duo 2. Scorrevole - Appassionato / Duo 1. Furioso (cont.) Andante espressivo - Furioso - Coda
- String Quartet No. 4: Appassionato
- String Quartet No. 4: Scherzando (stesso tempo)
- String Quartet No. 4: Lento (stesso tempo)
- String Quartet No. 4: Presto
Music reviews of Elliott Carter: String Quartets Nos. 2, 3 and 4
Music Review: Sometimes you really, really get your money's worth...
Rating: 5 Stars
Perhaps, in some golden future, the catalog will be overflowing with recordings of the Carter Quartets. I'm willing to bet that the Pacifica's recordings will still be among the favorites. This young group (in their thirties by the look of the CD art) understand the music and they know how to pull it off. I'll focus on the Third Quartet, which is as difficult to play as anything in the literature. There are multiple asynchronies in the piece: a pair of instruments joining up for a quiet encounter while the other pair rages along in an entirely different world. Every seeming combination of music and instrument faces off at some point in a condensed twenty minutes. As with the best of Ives, the listener may focus on a part or on the whole. For this music to be played properly, each part must be played with conviction and at a level that allows the other parts to be heard. That's difficult enough in the standard repertory. With Carter, the demands are much greater. In this recording, languid or quiet passages proceed without being hurried by the mayhem going on elsewhere. That requires considerable musical focus.
Music isn't (or shouldn't be) a competitive sport. But sometimes comparisons can be illuminating. I've enjoyed the Arditti Quartet's recording of the first four Carter quartets for some time. But I have come to prefer the recordings by the Pacifica. They are less forced, less harsh, and more subtly layered.
The recording itself is quite nice. It's in a space that's appropriate for chamber music: just the right balance of ambience and direct sound. The details of the performance are clear without being clinical. I hope that the Pacifica and Naxos team up for more recordings. Perhaps they could start with Dutilleux and Schoenberg...
Description of Elliott Carter: String Quartets Nos. 2, 3 and 4
To celebrate his 100th birthday, Elliott Carter's Complete String Quartets have been newly recorded by the Pacifica Quartet, Musical America's Ensemble of the Year for 2009. Volume 1 (8.559362) was critically acclaimed: a knockout (Limelight), Music with heart as well as a brain (4 STARS, The Times), the best possible introduction to Carter's music (5 STARS, The Guardian) and has recently been nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Recording.This disc presents the three remaining string quartets by the composer hailed by Aaron Copland as one of America's most distinguished creative artists in any field .
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