The seventh volume in Bridge's comprehensive series of the music of Elliott Carter presents four important concertos, composed in as many years by the dean of American composers, who appears vigorous, sharp-witted, and abundantly creative in his ninth decade. Dialogues for piano and chamber orchestra (2003), performed with crisp articulation and spontaneous energy by pianist Nicolas Hodges and the London Sinfonietta, under the direction of Oliver Knussen, is one of the most transparent of these late works by Carter, whose ...
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The seventh volume in Bridge's comprehensive series of the music of Elliott Carter presents four important concertos, composed in as many years by the dean of American composers, who appears vigorous, sharp-witted, and abundantly creative in his ninth decade. Dialogues for piano and chamber orchestra (2003), performed with crisp articulation and spontaneous energy by pianist Nicolas Hodges and the London Sinfonietta, under the direction of Oliver Knussen, is one of the most transparent of these late works by Carter, whose music in previous years was often noted and criticized for its extreme complexity and density. This piece's textural clarity is aided by the regular alternation of the piano and various subsections of the ensemble, which has rather few overlapping tutti passages. The Boston Concerto for orchestra (2002) is somewhat more elaborately laid out and layered, though much of this work's complexity is diffused over the course of its 13 short, distinctive sections. The BBC Symphony Orchestra,...
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