Vlaams Radio Orkest - Martyn Brabbins

The American composer Elliott Carter (b. 1908) is one of the most important innovators in twentieth-century music. His oeuvre is typified by far-reaching experiments with tempo ratios and textures. His symphonies, concerts and sonatas technically demand the utmost from any musician, but the effort is richly rewarded in terms of innovation. His early works, such as 'Pocahontas' (1939) and his First Symphony (1942), still refer to his neoclassical teachers Gustav Holst and Walter Piston. In the 1950s, he began to develop a highly personal, uncompromising style. He is probably one of the last remaining true modernists, as well as an ardent opponent of minimalism. 'Boston Concerto' (2003) bears witness to this. In an interview with Geoffrey Norris of The Telegraph, the ninety-six-year-old composer said the following about the popular trend of minimalism: 'It's death. If you write one bar and then repeat it over and over again, the music ceases to have anything to do with the composer... It means a person's stopped living. It doesn't have anything to do with music. ... I think that one of the big problems we live with is that that kind of repetition is everywhere, in advertising, in public address systems and in politicians always saying the same thing. We live in a minimalist world, I feel. That's what I think. Those other people can think what they think.'