- General information
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Composition date:
2004
- Duration: 10 mn
- Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
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Composition date:
2004
- Type
- Instrumental ensemble music [Mixed instrumental ensemble of more than 25 instruments]
- 2 flutes (also 2 piccolos, 1 alto flute), oboe, English horn, 2 clarinets (also 1 Eb clarinet, 1 bass clarinet, 1 contrabass clarinet), 2 bassoons (also 1 contrabassoon), 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 3 percussionists, harp, piano, 2 violins, second violin, 2 violas, 2 cellos, double bass
Premiere information
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Date:
15 February 2005
Location:France, Paris
Performers:l'Ensemble intercontemporain, direction : Pierre Boulez.
Program note
Conceived as an eightieth-birthday present for the composer’s longstanding friend and supporter Pierre Boulez this colorful and often humorous piece is a swirl of reflections on six notes that spell out the dedicatee’s surname. The score is also a homage to the Ensemble InterContemporain, which was to give the first performance (as also of the composer’s Penthode and his concertos for oboe and clarinet). Accordingly, the music is a sparkling sequence of virtuoso solos and duets, including a comic turn for contrabass clarinet in the extreme low register, bright discourses for flutes and trumpets, and a cello thrust in which, Carter has observed, “the cello plays a wrong note, B natural, which the orchestra doesn’t like, so then it plays the right note, which is B flat.”
Paul Griffiths.