Lauds and Lamentations: Music of Elliott Carter and Isang Yun - 2 CD BOXED SET [Import]

Elliott Carter (Composer), Isang Yun (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Elliott Carter, Isang Yun
• Audio CD (June 24, 2003)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Import
• Label: ECM Records
• ASIN: B00008LPGO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #488,067 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Master musicianship, July 17, 2003

By 

Joe Barron (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lauds and Lamentations: Music of Elliott Carter and Isang Yun - 2 CD BOXED SET (Audio CD)

OK, yes, granted, it's overpriced and it spreads one CD's worth of music over two, but the music-making in this set is extraordinary. Most of the pieces by Carter are available elsewhere, but the Four Lauds - extroverted violin solos the composer has arranged into a Bach-like suite - are not, and they are worth the cost of the ticket all by themselves. The Oboe Quartet is one of Carter's most attractive works of recent years, and Holliger and Co. serve up a muscular reading that is perhaps less elegant than the premiere recording on Bridge, but every bit as convincing. The music of Yun was new to me, but I found it immediately engaging. Holliger traverses the extended landscape of "Piri" with delicacy and impeccable phrasing, and anyone who can hold one's attention through a 14-minute oboe solo as consistently as he does deserves some kind of musican-of-the-decade award. Crisp, 3-D sound.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heinz Holliger's sublime oboe music, August 6, 2005

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lauds and Lamentations: Music of Elliott Carter and Isang Yun - 2 CD BOXED SET (Audio CD)

This is a stunningly beautiful set of music, but it does seem that ECM became a bit too enamored of the concept. The core is two oboe quartets by Elliott Carter and Isang Yun, both dedicated to and performed by Heinz Holliger, one of the world's leading oboists. That was the logical core of a 1-disc Holliger release that would also include "A 6 Letter Letter" by Carter and "Piri" by the Korean composer, both solo pieces. But having assembled virtuosos Thomas Zehetmair on violin, Thomas Demenga on cello and Ruth Killius on viola, solo works by Carter were added, the "4 Lauds" for violin and "Figments 1 & 2" for cello, leading to the idea of a 2-disc set, one disc each for Carter and Isang Yun. So we end up with a lavish and expensive package.

However, as I said, all the music is superb. Keeping in mind that this is primarily a Heinz Holliger recording, I am thankful for it because otherwise who knows when or if I ever would have heard anything by Isang Yun (1917-1995), a Korean dissident whose career was mainly spent in Germany? Though he participated in the Darmstadt circle, his music is simpler than Carter's, influenced by Asian folk music, and Holliger's performances are lyrical and lovely, very much in the ECM tradition.

The Carter disc is top-notch chamber music. The 2001 "Oboe Quartet" is one of the best of Carter's streamlined late works, with sparkling, witty interchanges between the oboe and strings. The solo pieces for violin and cello are fascinating, scintillating. It is striking how the late Carter has come to embody a classical sensibility, a post-tonal Mozartian elan.

3.0 out of 5 stars Robbery, July 21, 2011

By 

Hsbc (Saltillo, Mexico) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lauds and Lamentations: Music of Elliott Carter and Isang Yun - 2 CD BOXED SET (Audio CD)

It is not my intention to discredit the music contained in these two cd set, at the contrary: it is music of the highest rank. This time I will not review the music but the edition. I adore the recordings of ECM house, but I quite claim for the stinginess and miserliness of the recording time in both discs of this set. How is it possible that disc one contains only 44 minutes and the second just 34! It is a steal that costs more than 34 dollars. ECM easily could have edit the works of both, Carter and Yun in one disc. Perhaps some people will think that the mean is me, but I consider that the recording houses must not abuse even they present extraordinary works such as these.