Music as a simultaneity of perspectives has long been central to the thinking of Elliott Carter, making him an ideal subject for a film-maker as inquiring in approach as Frank Scheffer. The documentary places Carter in his lifelong home, New York: a city whose dynamism and innovation are evident across his work, albeit grounded in the “European tradition” that he absorbed from Nadia Boulanger. A combination of modernism and classicism – without, as Charles Rosen points out, being beholden to either – is Carter’s most enduring achievement. As he ventures over Brooklyn Bridge, that sense of constant change and underlying continuity in his music, as in life itself, is made movingly apparent.

Thus Carter’s work is not so much “explained” as illuminated in its very human complexity. There are pertinent anecdotes from Pierre Boulez and Daniel Barenboim, as well as footage of Carter at work and in conversation with his wife Helen (who died soon after this film was completed). Rehearsals with pianist Ursula Oppens and clarinettist Alain Damiens underline that his is music inspired by people and responsive to human input: demanding for the performer and involving for the listener. As in his other composer portraits, Scheffer’s conviction is stimulating in itself, making this a fine addition to a notable series.

At the close, Carter remarks on the need for humans to become more inwardly “intelligent” as the complexity of living increases – adding that they will then like his music. One hopes that he is right on both counts.