Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei

The ominous Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei (“I am the prize of flowing hope”) is a late-career feat of creativity from Elliott Carter, the dean of American modernism, who was nearly 90 when the piece was premiered in full in 1998 (the three movements, which may be performed separately, were each commissioned and premiered by a different orchestra). Seemingly free of rigid structures, the piece loosely portrays a poem by the 17th-century poet Richard Crashaw, in which an inquisitive bubble ponders the vicissitudes of human life. The trailblazing, 45-minute Symphonia hurtles toward unpredictable places where melody and harmony are upended, defying logic and expectations of what a symphony should be. With abrupt descending figures and solo instruments that emerge from the fray, the opening “Partita” is an ever-shifting cornucopia of sound. Bursts of brass and jagged fragments ignite, only to fall silent. The bleak “Adagio tenebroso” provides little shelter, while the concluding “Allegro scorrevole” adopts the density of the “Partita”, but with a lighter touch, capped by ringing percussion and a lonesome solo piccolo that brings the piece to an inconclusive end.