Elliott Carter - Music of Elliot Carter, Volume 7 (2005)

Nominated for 2007 Grammy Nominee as the Best Contemporary Composition, this highly anticipated recording presents first recordings of four major Elliott Carter compositions conducted by the distinguished British conductor, Oliver Knussen. These recordings tell the amazing tale of an American composer, well into his nineties, continuing to produce highly complex, sophisticated scores with an energy that would hardly be conceivable even in a much younger man. "Dialogues for piano and chamber orchestra" was a BBC Radio 3 commission for the brilliant young British pianist Nicolas Hodges and is scored for piano solo and a chamber orchestra comprising 18 instruments. "Boston Concerto" was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and is based on a William Carlos Williams poem, “Rain”, a verse chosen to convey the composer’s enduring love for his wife Helen, the dedicatee of Boston Concerto. Carter’s "Cello Concerto" is a twenty minute span introduced by the soloist alone, playing a cantilena that presents ideas later to be expanded into a series of linked movements. Scored for a large orchestra that frequently plays with intimately drawn orchestral textures, the Cello Concerto was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was first performed by the CSO with Yo Yo Ma as cellist and Daniel Barenboim as the conductor. Carter completed the concise 12 minute "ASKO Concerto" in January 2000 to a commission from the Asko Ensemble of Amsterdam and the recording on this disc is of its first performance in the Concertgebouw on April 26 of that year.

The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 7

Dialogues (2003)
Nicolas Hodges, piano
London Sinfonietta
Oliver Knussen, conductor

Boston Concerto (2002)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Oliver Knussen, conductor

Cello Concerto (2001)
Fred Sherry, cello
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Oliver Knussen, conductor

ASKO Concerto (2000)
Asko Ensemble
Oliver Knussen, conductor

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