Cage: Atlas Eclipticalis / Carter: Variations for Orchestra / Babbitt: Correspondences / Schuller: Spectra

The works on this fantastic disc are about as postmodern as you can get. These are the guys who either created movements or left them in their wake, and Maestro James Levine does a heroic job in making everything lucid. Carter's Variations for Orchestra (1956) has flirtations with tonality hinting at Roy Harris, of all people. The Gunther Schuller Spectra (1958) is more garrulous, more typical of today's group of young Scandinavian composers. The Babbitt is for string orchestra and synthesized tape, a one-of-a-kind 1967 composition that revels in its own peculiarity. The Cage is a quiet, giddy gem. --Paul Cook