Description on Youtube:
Carter, Elliott: Allegro scorrevole (1996) 11'
(third part of the orchestral triptych Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei)
Orquesta sinfónica RTVE.
Dir. Luka Pfaff.
Orquestación
2.picc.2.corA.2(II=Ebcl).bcl.2.dbn-4.3.3.1-perc(4):timp/glsp/xyl/vib/ 4bongos/SD/2tom-t/wdbl/3susp cym/2cowbells/guiro/2metal blocks/ 4tpl bl/BD/marimba-harp-pft-strings.
Allegro Scorrevole, as its title suggests, consists primarily of a continuous flow of soft, rapid passages that move over the entire range of the sound spectrum, and here and there form into thematic material. Against this is a lyrical idea also developed throughout, sometimes slowing down to hesitantly separated notes and at other times tightly joined together to form intensely expressive lines.
The fleeting, evanescent character of the score was suggested by these lines from the Latin poem, Bulla (Bubble) by the English Jacobean poet, Richard Crashaw -- The bubble speaks, as it floats through the air:
Sum venti ingenium breve
Flos sum, scilicet, aeris
........
Sum blandum, petulans, vagum,
Pulchrum, purpureum, et decens,
Comptum, floridulum, et recens.
I am the brief nature of the wind
To be sure, I am the flower of air
........
I am charming, wanton, inconstant,
Beautiful, gleaming, and noble,
Ornate, somewhat blooming, and fresh.
Allegro Scorrevole was commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Music Director, and is dedicated to it and to Oliver Knussen. It was composed during the summer of 1995 in Southbury, Connecticut.
Elliott Carter, 1995
