Elliott Carter - Late Works

The Guardian 80

Aimard/Currie/Faust/BCMG/BBCSO/Knussen
(Ondine)

Few composers have lived to celebrate their 100th birthdays, and fewer still were continuing to write music when they did so. But Elliott Carter’s productivity in the final decade of his life (he died five years ago at the age of 103) was extraordinary. The seven works in this collection – all composed between 2003 and 2012 and all but two appearing on disc for the first time – by no means tell the whole story of Carter’s productivity in his final decade. Another disc could be filled comfortably with the seven song cycles with ensemble or full orchestra he composed after 2002, all settings of 20th-century American poets, not to mention three more concertos and the assorted instrumental studies often composed as tributes to friends.

Related: Elliott Carter remembered: 'Music seemed to erupt from his very being'