<p>I’ve been meaning go check out EC for a long time, and given that he is now 100 and is recommended by someone styling himself “epistrophy,” that will happen sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>Bye-ya.</p>
<p>PS -</p>
<p>Ah, what the heck. I just ordered the Oppens disc.</p>
<p>Oh, and here’s another interesting fact (to me, anyway):</p>
<p>The guy who started and runs the label that released this Ursula Oppens recording is the son of a United States Supreme Court Justice (Ruth Bader Ginsburg).</p>
<p>Charlie Rose had a delightful show with Elliot Cater, Jimmy Levine and Daniel Barenboim this week. Mr Carter remains impish and sharp as a tack at 100. Musically I am not a big fan of EC but folling the interview perhaps I will give him a second listen.</p>
<p>That’s coming next, I hear–they’re still working on getting the harmonies right.</p>
<p>In the meantime, here’s some more recommended EC (think thorny, dense, kinetic, bristling with energy, lots of different things all going on at the same time, etc.):</p>
<p>One Amazon listener’s response: “If you want to hear the finest cycle of string quartets of the late 20th century, don’t miss it.”</p>
<p>(And in the department of everything’s everything, I once heard the ASQ perform in Chicago and who should I spy in the audience but Ursula Oppens and Julius Hemphill. [Chip Taylor and Jon Voight were reportedly there too, but I didn’t see them.] Not long before he died, JH wrote something for the ASQ and UO [“Recent commissions included ‘One Atmosphere (For Ursula),’ a piano quintet premiered by the Arditti String Quartet and pianist Ursula Oppens in 1992 . . . .” [Julius</a> Hemphill at All About Jazz](<a href=“http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7563]Julius”>Julius Hemphill Musician - All About Jazz) )</p>
<p>I’m going to show my lack of cultural bona fides here…last night I saw the BSO perform Elliot Carter’s Horn Concerto (2006) with James Sommerville on the horn. I know James Levine is championing Carter for his centennial but I thought the music was dissonant and unpleasant. Not my taste.</p>
<p>No need to feel as though you have to apologize for not caring for EC’s music–not at all. It’s not to lots of folks’ “taste.” And it *is<a href=“often”>/i</a> “dissonant.” But whether that’s a weakness or a strength in his music, well, that’s up to the listener.</p>
<p>As for me, I find EC’s music a lot more enlivening than I find a lot of music that’s more lyrical. But, hey, I have nothing against traditional notions of aural beauty (I love Mozart, too).</p>
<p>H is going to today’s NYC Carter concert, which Carter is supposed to attend. (Me? I’m hanging out with S, or would be if he’d gotten out of bed yet!)</p>
<p>Amazon seems to be sending me the Oppens disc by whaling vessel around Cape Horn. It’s not expected till late December or early January. I will have to bide my time with the new Sonny Rollins.</p>
<p>Re the Carter/Oppens, you might try getting it directly from Cedille (and cancelling the Amazon order). (Or, for something even quicker [if not quite comparable sonically], you could download it there for only $7.)</p>
<p>Having just now listened (again) to the first track on the Carter/Oppens disc (a 1994 composition that clocks in at just under 5 minutes), I just want to echo some things that, I think, the NPR Fresh Air critic may have said about this music in the piece linked above. </p>
<p>Like anything else, so much of one’s experience of Carter’s music is determined by one’s expectations. If you go into it expecting neat, recurring melodic patterns, yes, you will likely find his music frustrating and be put off by it. </p>
<p>However, if you can put those expectations aside for the moment and listen to his music with open ears and an open mind – as if you were going on a journey to you didn’t know where but you were open to whatever you might experience along the way – you just might find that his music is anything but “cold” and “intellectual,” but rather is so full of liveliness, humor, and surprise, in such an incredibly distilled form, that when you find (as I just did) that your 5-minute musical journey is over, it’s hard to respond with anything other than “Wow!”</p>
<p>I actually enjoyed the Horn Concerto, I’ve been slowly developing a taste for more modern music over a number of years. </p>
<p>I was struck by Carter’s remark in the article cited by epistrophy (#1):</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As a nonprofessional, untrained listener willing to offer definitive opinions on anything under the cover of anonymity, I thought that the long lines and great beauty of the horn part, in contrast to the dissonance and staccato of the rest of the orchestra, fit the quote well: we live in difficult times but wonderful things can still be achieved amidst the overwhelming dissonance.</p>