It could just be that there are more Carter buffs among record collectors who will regret the absence of other works of his from this disc than there are listeners who will enjoy the Bach/Carter conjunction imposed on them. I'm not myself arguing that contemporary composers should never have great masters of the past placed alongside them: after all, that is what happens in concerts more often than not. But I don't feel that this particular Bach/Carter association has a great deal going for it, despite the enthusiasm of Heinz Holliger in his open letter in the booklet. And I doubt whether Thomas Demenga's account of the Bach C major Suite, forthright and proficient though it is, in a distinctly romantic manner, sets new standards of interpretation in this repertory. On balance, I would rather have heard Demenga in the first CD recording of Carter's own superb Sonata for cello and piano.
The disc's main Carter offering is the dazzling instrumental sextet from 1982, called Triple Duo to highlight the essential partnerships—flute and clarinet, violin and cello, piano and percussion—that form the basis for a typically intricate scheme of dialogues and debates, vigorous dispute yielding, in the end, to a precarious reconciliation. The recording of Triple Duo by its dedicatees, The Fires of London, on a Wergo LP (nla) was remarkable in technique and temperament alike. This new version is, if possible, even more sizzlingly flamboyant, although the tension conveyed by The Fires' unconducted performance is replaced here by an almost brazen display of virtuosity controlled (I infer from the details given on the insert) by the confident beat of Jurg Wyttenbach. I think it might have been possible for such brilliant players to get even closer to Carter's idealistic notated dynamics had conductor and producer nagged them a little more, but this is still a formidable achievement.
The three recent miniatures, all tributes to various friends and colleagues of Carter's, are also well done, and it is particularly good to have the witty, lyrical Enchanted preludes for flute and cello, which is still little more than two years old. I like the well-spaced balance and open, forwardly-placed sound of the ECM recording.'