Carter: String Quartets Nos. 2, 3 & 4 (2009)

Elliott Carter's String Quartets On Naxos

To celebrate Elliott Carter's (1908 -- 2012) 100th birthday (2008), the Pacifica Quartet undertook the formidable task of recording the composer's five string quartets on the budget-priced Naxos label. The first recording which included the first and the fifth quartet proved successful indeed for music of such bristling complexity. The recording received a well-deserved Grammy Award. This second CD, which includes quartets 2,3, and 4 completes the cycle. It is on the same high level as the first CD. The Pacifica Quartet has been playing together since 1994. It consists of Simin Ganatra and Bibbi Bernhardsson, violins, Masumi Per Rostad, viola, and Brandon Vamos, cello. The quartet is to be commended for this effort in recording Carter's quartets.

Elliott Carter's quartets span 44 years, with the first quartet dating from 1951 and the fifth quartet composed in 1995. Each of the five quartets has its own individual character and each requires careful listening. The first quartet is the longest of the five. It established Carter as a modernist composer. The final quartet is an almost divertimento-like work, lighter than its predecessors. The second, third, and fourth quartets each are deeply challenging. They are modernist works of high intellect and emotion. Each of these works is less than one-half hour in length, but they are dense and highly concentrated. The music is atonal with highly shifting and varied rhythms, textures, and moods. Carter uses each instrument, and the entire ensemble, in original and idiosyncratic ways.

The Pulitzer-Prize winning string quartet no. 2 (1959) became known for its radically individualistic treatment of the four instruments, which many listeners took as capturing the separateness and individualism of modern life. Each instrument plays in its own tempo and with its own characteristics, seemingly oblivious to its companions. The work is less than 25 minutes in duration and is in nine short movements. In the even-numbered movements, marked by roman numerals and by a tempo indication (which is only a loose guide as tempos shift frequently) the four instruments play with each voice competing with and commenting on each other. The sixth and eighth movements are the longest in the work and evidence a difficult, passionate conversation among the four separate voices. The third, fifth, and seventh movement consist of short, cadenza passages for each instrument, viola, cello and violin, with, in each case, the remaining instruments commenting on and fighting against the leader. The work begins with a brief opening introduction which presents the four voices of the quartet and their characteristics, and it ends with a "conclusion" in which each voice fades away.

The string quartet no. 3 (1971) also received a Pulitzer Prize. This is the shortest (22 minutes) and probably the most challenging quartet of the three. Carter groups the ensemble into two "duos". Duo I consists of the second violin and the viola, and Carter directs them to play with rubato and expressive freedom. Duo II consists of the first violin and cello which play in strict time. The work is in six movements and both Duo I and Duo II play a number of themes against each other throughout the work. Duo I plays four blocks of music, marked Furioso, Leggerissimo, Andante expressivo, Giocoso. Duo II plays blocks marked Maestoso, Grazioso, Giusto, mecanico, Scorrevole [a scherzo],Largo tranquillo, and Appasionato. In the six movements, each Duo sometimes plays alone, but more often a block from one Duo is juxtaposed against a block from the other Duo making a shifting movement of sound. For example, the work opens with the Maestoso passage of Duo II playing against the Furioso of Duo I. The final movement opens with the Scorrevole of Duo II played against the Furioso of Duo I. The work evolves with the various combinations of four and six against each other. It is an extraordinary difficult piece to perform and to hear but highly rewarding. (I thought of the poetic form known as a Sestina as a loose analogy. In a sestina, the words which conclude each of the six lines of a stanza move from one line to another in a fixed pattern -- as do, in a way, the various themes of Duo I and Duo II in this quartet.

The final quartet on this CD, quartet no. 4 (1986) is somewhat more traditional in form than its companions. This work is in four movements, marked Appassionato, Scherzando, Lento, and Presto, and is about 28 minutes in length. Carter himself contrasted the theme of this work with that of quartet no. 2. While the former quartet stressed individualism in the four voices, in the latter quartet Carter tried to capture "the democratic attitude in which each member of a society maintains his or her own identity while cooperating in a common effort." The opening movement features a searing theme in the first violin which is supported by the other three members of the quartet. The second movement is a hushed scherzo in which all four voices participate. The third movement is highly intense with deep, interwoven harmonies. The movement is also punctuated by long pauses which is one of the hallmarks of this work. The finale too is marked by long, dramatic silences and by the contrasts between presto passages and the much slower, meditative sections. This quartet is difficult, but it may be the most accessible of Carter's five quartets to the new listener.

Over the years, I have learned a great deal about American music from Naxos's "American classics" series. This CD, together with the companion CD of Carter's first and fifth string quartets offer the adventurous listener an outstanding opportunity to get to know the work of a major American composer.

Total time: 74:15

Robin Friedman