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American Classics - Carter: String Quartets 2, 3 And 4 / Pacifica Quartet
Naxos

American Classics - Carter: String Quartets 2, 3 And 4 / Pacifica Quartet

$19.99

Details

Composer
CARTER, ELLIOTT
Artist
PACIFICA QUARTET
Format
CD
Label
Naxos
Released
Feb 24, 2009
Catalog #
8559363
UPC
636943936320

About



CARTER String Quartets: Nos. 2–4 • Pacifica Qrt • NAXOS 8.559363 (74:15)


In Fanfare 31:6, I wrote of the Pacifica Quartet’s release of Carter’s First and Fifth quartets: “A great release, which I can only hope is matched by the sequel.” Prayers are answered, though I have slight reservations this time, but based on the music rather than the performances.


Carter’s three middle quartets have distinct personalities, based on the fact that they are about “distinct personalities.” Specifically, the Second gives each instrument a prescribed character, and the piece becomes a chamber drama of individuals who interact in a variety of manners and situations. (Ives’s Second Quartet comes to mind as a predecessor, though Carter’s characterizations tend to be more subtle, concentrated, abstract, and involved.) The Third takes a similar idea, but now applies it to two duos (violin/cello and violin/viola), which have a separate set of movements that overlap with each other in a sort of macro-counterpoint. The Fourth is by far the most “classical”—indeed of the entire cycle, not just these three. While its first movement features a rhapsodic, almost wild violin cadenza against which the remaining instruments construct a continuous commentary, it becomes a far more coordinated texture of democratic equality between the voices as it progresses.


While I wrote with unrestrained enthusiasm about the music of Quartets No. 1 and 5, my reaction is more qualified here. No. 2 is many people’s favorite, and there’s no doubt it exudes great wit, virtuosity, and an idea of polyphony never really heard before. That said, I’ve always found the characterizations less perceptible than many, partly because Carter’s highly chromatic pitch language (despite the fact that the different instruments concentrate on different melodic intervals and rhythmic patterns) tends to homogenize the differences. Going back to Ives, I think more stylistic contrasts would make the point better. But I also know that’s anathema to Carter’s aesthetics.


No. 3 on the other hand, is the point where many folks gave up on the composer, but where I was (and still am) blown away. The Third is one of the greatest monuments of High Modernism. Yes, it’s unbelievably complex, but it has an intensity, breadth, and passion unlike almost anything else in the Carter output. One really hears the interaction, indeed the collision, between its worlds as they revolve around one another.


And then No. 4: I wrote earlier I hoped the Pacificas could convince me at last of its value, but while they push me to the edge, I still can’t make the leap. I do realize now that the first movement is one of those rare birds in Carter’s music, a piece based on the rigorous, almost obsessive development of a single motive. Likewise, the slow third movement and the increasingly fragmented alternation between outburst and silence of the concluding Presto have a memorable profile. But it still sounds forced, and I’m sorry to say, relatively empty to me in comparison to the other works in the cycle. I feel that Carter reached a point in the early 1970s where he understood his technique and was able to write large-scale works fluently, but he’d lost some of the reason and drive to do so. Several works that, again, people I know are passionate about, such as Night Fantasies for piano, Penthode for chamber orchestra, and this Quartet, seem to be going through the motions, but don’t reach the transcendent state one senses in other pieces. The good news, though, is that by the mid 1980s Carter began writing a series of brilliant miniatures (one can trace perhaps to the 1984 Riconoscenza for solo violin), which led him to his “late late” style, where a greater degree of clarity, concision, and wit has combined to produce more music of more delight than he ever produced before (we’re talking here about a composer working in the age range of 80–100!). The Fifth Quartet is one of the masterpieces of this period.


As for these performances, once again the Pacificas take the crown on several fronts. The Ardittis have the only other cycle (on Etcetera), but it does not include the Fifth. Also, the Pacificas have far more extensive indexing of movements, which allows one to follow Carter’s formal argument much more closely. Their interpretations are Olympian, yet also suitably driven, catching both the abstraction and expressionism of Carter’s music. To take just one example, their performance of the Fourth, which seems quite intense and fast, is seven minutes longer than the Arditti’s (27:00 vs. 20:00). Listening to the latter, their version of the first movement is the proverbial bat-out-of-hell, and while exhilarating, it sounds as though they’re in a hurry to get it over with. My only quibble with the Pacificas is that their performance of the Third, while staggering in its control and attention to detail, doesn’t deliver the sort of emotional wallop at its ending that I came to know from the Juilliard’s premiere LP recording on Columbia. (Boy, do I fear that dates me!)


But this is overall a triumph of adventurous and stunning music-making, both in the composer’s creation and the performers’ realization. My critique of Carter’s quartets doesn’t dim my overall admiration, or my sense that this is likely the greatest quartet cycle we’ve had since Bartók’s. Add in the budget price for both discs, and this is by far the best way to get a monument of its era, and the single best introduction to Carter’s world one could imagine.


FANFARE: Robert Carl

Tracklist 19 tracks

  1. 1 Introduction - 01:18
    Track
    1
    Title
    Introduction -
    Duration
    01:18
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  2. 2 I. Allegro fantastico - 03:04
    Track
    2
    Title
    I. Allegro fantastico -
    Duration
    03:04
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  3. 3 I. Cadenza for viola - 01:54
    Track
    3
    Title
    I. Cadenza for viola -
    Duration
    01:54
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  4. 4 II. Presto scherzando - 02:20
    Track
    4
    Title
    II. Presto scherzando -
    Duration
    02:20
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  5. 5 II. Cadenza for cello - 02:10
    Track
    5
    Title
    II. Cadenza for cello -
    Duration
    02:10
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  6. 6 III. Andante espressivo - 05:10
    Track
    6
    Title
    III. Andante espressivo -
    Duration
    05:10
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  7. 7 III. Cadenza for violin I - 01:55
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. Cadenza for violin I -
    Duration
    01:55
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  8. 8 IV. Allegro - 05:22
    Track
    8
    Title
    IV. Allegro -
    Duration
    05:22
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  9. 9 IV. Conclusion 01:23
    Track
    9
    Title
    IV. Conclusion
    Duration
    01:23
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  10. 10 Duo II: Maestoso (giusto sempre) - / Duo I: Furioso (quasi rubato sempre) - 04:31
    Track
    10
    Title
    Duo II: Maestoso (giusto sempre) - / Duo I: Furioso (quasi rubato sempre) -
    Duration
    04:31
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  11. 11 Duo I: Giocoso (bar 90) - Duo II: Scorrevole (bar 106) - 02:18
    Track
    11
    Title
    Duo I: Giocoso (bar 90) - Duo II: Scorrevole (bar 106) -
    Duration
    02:18
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  12. 12 Duo I: Leggerissimo (bar 136) - Duo II: Giusto, meccanico (bar 151) - 02:49
    Track
    12
    Title
    Duo I: Leggerissimo (bar 136) - Duo II: Giusto, meccanico (bar 151) -
    Duration
    02:49
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  13. 13 Duo I: Giocoso (bar 197) - Duo II: Maestoso (bar 219) - 02:41
    Track
    13
    Title
    Duo I: Giocoso (bar 197) - Duo II: Maestoso (bar 219) -
    Duration
    02:41
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  14. 14 Duo II: Largo tranquillo (bar 254) - Duo I: Leggerissimo (bar 277) - 05:28
    Track
    14
    Title
    Duo II: Largo tranquillo (bar 254) - Duo I: Leggerissimo (bar 277) -
    Duration
    05:28
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  15. 15 Duo II: Scorrevole (bar 366) - Duo I: Andante espressivo (bar 380) 04:05
    Track
    15
    Title
    Duo II: Scorrevole (bar 366) - Duo I: Andante espressivo (bar 380)
    Duration
    04:05
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  16. 16 Appassionato - 07:24
    Track
    16
    Title
    Appassionato -
    Duration
    07:24
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  17. 17 Scherzando (stesso tempo) - 06:31
    Track
    17
    Title
    Scherzando (stesso tempo) -
    Duration
    06:31
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  18. 18 Lento (stesso tempo) - 06:49
    Track
    18
    Title
    Lento (stesso tempo) -
    Duration
    06:49
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet
  19. 19 Presto 07:04
    Track
    19
    Title
    Presto
    Duration
    07:04
    Composer
    Elliott Carter
    Ensemble
    Pacifica Quartet