8 Compositions
With a full orchestra, Elliott Carter can spread his wings with clangorous grandness. When he goes with a smaller unit, as he does here, he can also do wonderful things--expanding on his tonal and timbral studies with telescoped intensity. This generous 78-minute collection begins in 1993 with Charles Neidich unfurlingGrafor the solo clarinet, a piece that rivals anything on the extraordinary Giacinto Scelsi'sComplete Works for the Clarinetfor breadth and investigative power. Carter, an octogenarian when he wroteGra, has, this collection shows, been on similar paths since at least 1948, when the CD's closer, Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, came to be. It shows off Carter's proclivity for middle-register grounding and fast outward motion, always tracking toward the unfamiliar and creating electric excitement. As a compendium of one of the greatest American composer's solo and chamber works,Eight Compositionscan't be beat.--Andrew Bartlett