Sinfonia Tapkaara / Ritmica Ostinata / Symphonic Fantasia No.1

Editorial Review

2005 Grammy Awards Nominee for Best Classical Album

While no one will ever agree on who is the most important living American composer, Elliott Carter is often called the most eminent, which is difficult to dispute. Now 95 years old and actively composing for eight decades, Carter spans nearly the entire twentieth century and the beginning of the 21st. Famous for highly demanding atonal scores using extraordinarily sophisticated rhythms, Carter is a prime architect of modernist music in the United States. Among his most important works are: the Double Concerto for Piano and Harpsichord with Two Chamber Orchestras, which Stravinsky hailed as a masterpiece, a Concerto for Orchestra which Bernstein championed, a Grammy-winning Violin Concerto, and five string quartets, often hailed as the most important works in the genre since Bartók, two of which were awarded Pulitzers. His most recent compositions include his first opera, What Next?, and a Cello Concerto for Yo-Yo Ma. 

The three orchestral works presented here span only two decades, a seemingly insignificant time frame considering Carter’s longevity, but the Holiday Overture and Symphony No. 1, both composed in the 1940s, and the Piano Concerto from 1965 initially feel universes apart. However, this unprecedented combination of two works from Carter’s little-known earlier “populist” style with one of the most seemingly forbidding works from his mature difficult style reveal that the young Carter nonetheless composed highly individual complex works and that later Carter is more approachable than most people think.

Additional Info

• Recording: STEREO
• Format: Single Case

Tracklisting