Those sadistic perverts at BBC Radio 3...

From the program description of a recent BBC Radio 3 broadcast:
Louise Fryer explores Bruckner, the man behind the music...

Now, I have a pretty good idea of what exploring music is about.  But when it comes to exploring "the man behind the music", the only thing that comes to mind is this:

Short but sweet...

Carter's 7-min long String Trio was one of several chamber works completed in 2011, about a year before he died.  Although it was premiered in December 2011 by Rolf Schulte, Fred Sherry, and Richard O'Neill  at the 92nd Street Y concert celebrating Carter's 103rd birthday, I have not come across a recording of that premiere performance.  The present live recording from the 2013 REMUSIC Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia (performed by members of eNsemble Pro-Arte Fund) was my first chance to get acquainted with this little gem. 

Bulgakov would have loved this!!!

THE NEW YORK TIMES

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 World Briefing | Europe

16 September 2013

Russia: Shooting in Philosophical Clash

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

An argument over the teachings of the philosopher Immanuel Kant between two men standing in line for beer at an outdoor festival in southern Russia ended when one man shot the other in the head with gun loaded with rubber bullets, the state RIA news agency reported on Monday, citing the police. Though the wound was not critical, the attacker faces up to a decade in prison if convicted on assault charges. Among educated Russians, including those who drink, classical literature and philosophy are sometimes debated in casual social settings, the way sports often are in Western countries.

Better late than never...

The 1952 Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord has never been among my favorite Carter pieces.  Still, after having spent many years with a hideously balanced studio recording of this sonata (a technical embarrassment for the otherwise very competent Nonesuch label), it was thrilling to hear it for the first time in an excellently engineered live recording.
     The performance was given by members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (except the harpsichordist) on September 10, 2013 at the Concertgebouw (Kleine Zaal).  The musicians were Fred Edelen (cello), Julie Moulin (flute), Miriam Pastor Burgos (oboe), and Christina Scott Edelen (harpsichord).

Gone but not forgotten...

The gravestone is less than modest, but then Mozart did not get even this much...  And what does it matter anyway?  If I were a composer, I would rather have people go to concert halls where my music is played than to the cemetery where my corpse is buried.

Which is how Elliott Carter was remembered on June 22, 2013 at the Aldeburgh Festival, where two well-known champions of his music - Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Oliver Knussen, supported by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group - performed Carter's Dialogues and Dialogues II.  This performance was recorded live by the BBC and was made available for a while as a high quality (320 kbs) webstream.

At about the same time I also came across my second live recording of Carter's Triple Duo, performed by the Belgian group Ensemble Linea on September 27, 2012 in Strasbourg.  One especially attractive feature of this close-balanced but atmospheric recording is its sharply defined spatial separation of the three instrumental groups.

The truth shall set you free...