ELLIOT CARTER : A Nonesuch Retrospective (2009) 4CD BOX-SET | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Between 1968 and 1990, Nonesuch produced a remarkable series of recordings on LP and CD showcasing the works of Elliott Carter, which for many listeners was their initial encounters with this challenging yet richly rewarding music. First experiences in many cases have proved to be the best as well, since several of these performances have achieved classic status and arguably have not been surpassed. Considering such great performers as mezzo-soprano Jan de Gaetani, pianists Paul Jacobs and Gilbert Kalish, cellists Joel Krosnick and Fred Sherry, flutist Harvey Sollberger, oboist Charles Kuskin, the Composers Quartet, the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble under Arthur Weisberg, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with James Levine, among other acclaimed artists, it's not difficult to grasp how highly their performances are esteemed and why they have remained in print for several years, when much of Nonesuch's modern music catalog from the 1970s and ‘80s has disappeared. Fortunately, these recordings have been brought together in a slim box set of four discs and a generous booklet to celebrate Carter's 100th birthday, so the problem of collecting the individual albums has been eliminated. Here are 14 works that represent Carter's most important work from 1942 to 1982, basically the early and middle periods of his long career, since he has remained active into his centennial year and composed music not covered by this retrospective. Yet despite the lack of late pieces, this collection of core works is essential for any serious Carter admirer and is a comprehensive introductory package for newcomers to the music of this American original. Highly recommended. Blair Sanderson
Disc One
Paul Jacobs, piano (1-2)
Jan DeGaetani, mezzo-soprano; Gilbert Kalish, piano (3-4)
New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz, conductor (5-21)
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, conductor (22)

Disc Two
Joel Krosnick, cello; Paul Jacobs, piano (1-4)
The Composers Quartet (5-7): Matthew Raimondi, Anahid Ajemian, violin; Jean Dupouy, viola; Michael Rudiakov, cello
Harvey Sollberger, flute; Charles Kuskin, oboe; Fred Sherry, cello; Paul Jacobs, harpsichord (8-10)

Disc Three
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, James Levine, conductor (1)
The Composers Quartet (2-10): Matthew Raimondi, Anahid Ajemian, violin; Jean Dupouy, viola; Michael Rudiakov, cello
Paul Jacobs, harpsichord; Gilbert Kalish, piano; The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble (11-17): Arthur Weisberg, conductor. Orchestra I (harpsichord): Paul Dunkel, flute/piccolo; Douglas Hill, horn; Allan Dean, trumpet; John Swallow, trombone; Raymond DesRoches, Claire Heldrich, percussion; Jacob Glick, viola; Jeffrey Levine, contrabass. Orchestra II (piano): George Haas, oboe; Allen Blustine, clarinet/piccolo clarinet; Donald MacCourt, bassoon; Joseph Anderer, horn; Howard Van Hyning, Richard Fitz, percussion; Linda Quan, violin; Fred Sherry, cello

Disc Four
Paul Jacobs, piano (1)
The Fires of London (2-7): Philippa Davies, flute; David Campbell, clarinet; Rosemary Furniss, violin; Jonathan Williams, cello; Gregory Knowles, percussion
Martyn Hill, tenor; London Sinfonietta, Oliver Knussen, conductor (8-13)

IVES/BRANT : A Concord Symphony; COPLAND : Organ Symphony (San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas) (2011) FLAC (tracks), lossless

The first item on the program here is, as the potential buyer may have guessed, an orchestral transcrption of Charles Ives' Piano Sonata No. 2, known as the Concord Sonata. But it requires a little more explanation. Orchestrator Henry Brant was a Canadian-American composer of an experimental bent who became, one learns from the booklet, "obsesssed" with the Concord Sonata and worked on an orchestral version in his spare time for the startlingly long period of 36 years, from 1958 to 1994. Further, he did not try to turn it into another Ives symphony, as the title might imply, "but rather to create a symphonic idiom which would ride in the orchestra with athletic surefootedness and present Ives' astounding music in clear, vivid, and intense sonorities." The result is quite unusual: not exactly Ivesian, but wholly absorbing in this reading by the eternally fresh Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Brant's version is something like a guided tour through the work, with the swirling flow of musical existence pared away from the sonata's special features. The recurring references to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, are pointed up in this version, and the evocations of vernacular American music (hear the brass band passages) that are part of the torrent in the piano version are here restored to something like their original sounds. Again, it's not exactly Ives, but the Concord Sonata has a way of bursting over its pianistic confines anyhow; there is an optional flute part for the finale that is too rarely performed. The second piece on the program is likewise underperformed, Copland's short three-movement Organ Symphony of 1925 is perhaps the one that most clearly reflects his own personality among his early works. Written in an idiom that clearly owes much to Copland's recent studies in Paris, it nevertheless works in big lyrical tunes and rollicking fun. Tilson Thomas and organist Paul Jacobs give the work its due and are sensitive to the clever ways of balancing the organ with orchestral textures. A highly enjoyable album of unusual Americana. by James Manheim

 Charles Ives (1874-1954)
A Concord Symphony (50:05)
Orchestrated By – Henry Brant

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Organ Symphony (27:02)
Organ – Paul Jacobs

Orchestra – San Francisco Symphony
Conductor – Michael Tilson Thomas