Customer Reviews

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

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I bought this cd on the strength of Isang Yun's music alone. Equally, as a fellow oboist I was drawn to several new, important works for my instrument, written for, and played by, the phenomenal talent of Heinz Holliger. The Elliott Carter works show off a major compositional talent at the height of his powers, but, they fail to equal the emotional impact of Yun's music. Both composers offer up intriguing and meaningful works to enrich the oboe's chamber music repertoire, and Holliger delivers a masterful interpretation of the pieces throughout the double cd. I have always had a soft spot for Yun's Piri, and am now becoming a fan of his oboe quartet, too. The slow mvt., I find very special with its outer mvts. providing the perfect foil to the central core. A fine recording!

This ECM release from 2003 brings together pieces by Elliott Carter and Isang Yun for the forces of oboe quartet, whether alone or collectively. The legendary modernist oboeist Heinz Holliger presides, accompanied by Thomas Zehetmair on violin, Ruth Killius on viola, and Thomas Demenga on cello.

Yeah, I could complain about how one is paying full price for a double CD set, even though there's only 80 minutes of music here. But I think we contemporary fans are suckers in that Carter completists and those hunting relatively rare recordings of Yun are going to get this anyway.

One often hears that Carter's late style was inaugurated by his Oboe Concerto, but the Oboe Quartet (2001) shows how his music has moved on greatly even from that new phase. As Carter has gotten older, the interactions of instruments within his ensembles has become increasingly limited, and this quartet is essentially a series of duos. While Carter's concerto for oboe explored all kinds of extended techniques, he eschews them here completely, though virtuoso demands of register changes and fast fingering remain. While fun in parts, I find this piece overlong and often a retread of earlier Carter achievements.

The "4 Lauds" for solo violin (1984-2001) is a little cycle of tributes to a few men dear to Carter: Goffredo Petrassi. Aaron Copland, Roger Sessions, Robert Mann, Ole Bøhn and Rolf Schulte. It mixes some very astringent modernism with surprisingly lyrical passages--who said Carter's music couldn't be touching? All kinds of violin techniques are used here, and I especially like the guitar-like strumming in the first piece.

"A 6 Letter Letter" for English horn (1996) is one of umpteen modern pieces that honour the conductor and patron Paul Sacher by encoding his name as notes (eS-A-C-H-E-Re = E flat-A-C-B-E-D). Carter goes even further into lyricism here, producing a piece that should be pleasing to the ears even of the most conservative listeners, yet containing Carter's rhythmic exhuberance below the surface.

The Carter portion concludes with two fairly light pieces for solo cello. In "Figment" (1994), the soloist must pull a whole world of sounds out of his single instrument, but in "Figment II -- Remembering Mr. Ives" (2001), Carter offers straightforward passage of lyricism not too different from the Classical and Romantic cello traditions.

This was my first exposure to the music of Isang Yun. "Piri" for oboe solo (1971) is a monodic piece characterized by extremely long-held notes. The Oboe Quartet (1994) has very little of a collaborative nature about it, as its four performers each produce the same sort of sounds as in "Piri" in seemingly isolation. Interesting enough to have a listen to this, but I don't feel drawn into exploring Isang Yun's output further.

The liner notes are substantial, featuring comments by Holliger, an informative interview with Carter on his late period, and an essay on the two composers by Philippe Albera. There's the issue of price versus length, and none of the Carter seem especially important compared to his other recent pieces, so I'll award this disc three stars.

I'm getting sorely tired of ECM's chintzy playing times. They're charging full-price for a two-cd release whose total playing time is 81 minutes. That will fit on a single cd. I'm giving this release a pass, despite my admiration for several of the featured musicians (Zehetmair, Holliger, Demenga) and my interest in the repertoire.

Having listened to this numerous times, I can only come to the conclusions that my ears will need much more education if they are to like this style on music, but at the same time, I well appreciate the musical skill of performance here. I risked purchasing this with both purposes in mind, having the highest regard for Holliger.

Some of the Carter compositions easily conform to what I like to listen to, while I'm afraid the Yun selections sound like whale communication to me.

I will continue the experiment though, and listen with an open mind and ear.