Given Carter’s still fertile imagination the claim that this represents
the ‘complete’ piano music may retrospectively turn out to be
slightly wide of the mark. But it’s certainly the complete piano
music, as published, and as things stand now (late 2008). Two
of the pianists most closely associated with his music for the
instrument are Charles Rosen, who has recorded it with great authority,
and Ursula Oppens, who has similarly done so in the past – she
set down a splendid Night Fantasies, issued by Music and
Arts [CD4862] alongside music by Sahl, Bolcom and Nancarrow for
instance. And now Oppens enters the arena again with this more
closely focused disc, excellently recorded and annotated – and,
not least, played.
She evinces a
masterly control of articulation in 90+ and just listen
to how those scurrying beats that end the work are deliciously
exciting – not a phrase one would expect to read of Carter’s
music, perhaps. Retrouvailles employs a motto on Pierre
Boulez’s name; it’s a powerfully and densely argued piece
of writing and one realises at the end, and with considerable
surprise, that only ninety eight second have elapsed. The
abrupt contrasts of the Night Fantasies prove winning
in this newer performance by Oppens. The anxious, persistent
oscillation in this work, the abrupt disjunctions, are pointed
with astuteness by her, and nor does she stint the work’s
more painterly qualities, fractious and volatile though they
may be.
The Two Diversions
date from 1999 and exploit the potential for divergent tempi in
both hands though Matribute arguably makes its point with
more concision. The Piano Sonata is, like Night Fantasies,
one of two big works here. This is one of his early masterpieces,
a two-movement work inspired by Ives, cognisant of Copland, yet
utterly fearless in its own vocabulary. The ‘modern Scarlatti’
sound that booklet writer Bayan Northcott advances can be heard
without too much straining; so too the jubilant drive of
a work that feasts on contrasts of colour, timbre and time signatures;
the playing off of right and left hands at a slow tempi is especially
well done in this performance.
To round off the
programme we have a nervous and unpredictable Two Thoughts
About the Piano, which is, with the exception of Matribute
(2007), the most recently written work in the programme.
Given the foregoing
this has very strong claims on Carter adherents, though they
will be aware that Charles Rosen’s older, almost identically
titled disc, offers corresponding authority [Bridge 9090].
Jonathan
Woolf
Ursula Oppens
(piano) 
