Nonesuch Records is saddened to learn of the death of American composer Elliott Carter, who passed away yesterday at the age of 103. In a career that spanned over 75 years, Carter composed 158 works and received two Pulitzer Prizes. In 2008, on the occasion of Carter's 100th birthday, Nonesuch released A Nonesuch Retrospective, a four-disc set featuring most of the recordings the label made of Carter’s music between 1968 and 1985, with a note by Paul Griffiths, which is reprinted in its entirety here.

Composer Elliott Carter turns 101 today. Earlier this year, as part of the composer's centennial celebration, Nonesuch Records released Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, featuring most of Carter's Nonesuch recordings from 1968 to 1985. The four-disc set The Observer called "covetable and historic" is now 33 1/3% off the standard list price at nonesuch.com as part of the Nonesuch Store Anniversary Sale.

Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a four-disc set featuring the recordings of the composer's works made for the label from 1968 to 1985, was recently released in celebration of the Carter's 100th birthday. "Among tributes to the centenarian master," says the Sunday Times (UK) in its four-star review, "few are as nicely judged as this set of recordings made for Nonesuch." The Buffalo News gives three stars to "this exceptional four-disc box," asserting that the performances it features "give the music its optimal opportunity to be heard."

Elliott Carter's centennial celebration continues this Tuesday with the release of a four-disc retrospective of the composer's Nonesuch recordings. The Observer says that "with performances from the 1970s and 1980s by some of his best interpreters," this Carter collection is "covetable and historic." The Guardian gives the set four stars, saying this collection, with "a whole clutch of outstanding performances" that first expanded the composer's reach in the UK, "is a must for all Carter admirers."

Grammy week is under way, which means not only the culminating awards ceremony, which will be held this Sunday night, but also various special events, including a conversation with and performance by Allen Toussaint tonight at the Grammy Museum, and an invitation-only ceremony honoring Toussaint and Elliott Carter with the Trustees Award Saturday night. Toussaint will also perform on the live broadcast of Sunday's awards ceremony with an eclectic group of fellow New Orleans artists. Nonesuch artists and albums have been nominated for a total of 13 Grammys this year.

While 2008 may go down as one of the more turbulent years in recent (or distant) memory, or, more optimistically, a time of change, there is much to celebrate in the year in music. Nonesuch artists across all genres have contributed to that and, accordingly, have made their way onto many critics' lists of the year's best. For the final Nonesuch Journal article of the year, we offer an overview of just some of that year-end critical praise.

The Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammy Awards, will honor Elliott Carter and Allen Toussaint with the special Trustees Award during Grammy week in February. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity, as determined by a vote of The Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. Says Neil Portnow, the Academy's President/CEO, says of this year's recipients: "Their outstanding accomplishments, legendary passion and artistry have positively affected our culture and will continue to influence and inspire generations to come."

Elliott Carter's 100th birthday was marked last Thursday at Carnegie Hall and around the world, with celebrations continuing through the weekend and beyond. Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed writes, in his review of the Carnegie event: "The world has never known such an artist, one who has reached 100 prolifically making vibrant work for which the wisdom of experience is employed to produce new sensations. History has been made before in Carnegie Hall and centenaries of great composers celebrated, but Thursday’s concert was a first." In London, the Ensemble Intercontemporain's Carter birthday program earns five stars in The Times (UK) and "must be ranked as one of the musical highs of 2008."

Elliott Carter celebrated his 100th birthday last night with a concert at Carnegie Hall that featured the New York premiere of Interventions, his piece for piano and orchestra, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by James Levine, with Daniel Barenboim at the piano. The New York Times calls the occasion "a milestone in music history. And the 17-minute piece—though brainy and complex, like all of Mr. Carter’s scores—was somehow celebratory: lucidly textured, wonderfully inventive, even impish. This was the work of a living master in full command." The celebration continues this weekend with Making Music: Elliott Carter at Carnegie Hall, Day of Carter at Lincoln Center, and concerts in Chicago, Paris, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Vienna, Cologne, Munich, Basel, and Porto, Portugal.

Nonesuch Records wishes Elliott Carter a very happy 100th birthday today. Birthday concerts are being held across the globe tonight, in New York, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Helsinki, Vienna, Montreal, and Washington, DC. Among the highlights are the Ensemble Intercontemporain's concert at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre, featuring Pierre-Laurent Aimard, with Pierre Boulez conducting. In New York, the celebration is at Carnegie Hall, with pianist Daniel Barenboim and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by James Levine, in a program the Boston Globe called, after its recent Boston premiere, "easily the best Boston Symphony Orchestra concert of the season." An editorial in The Guardian concludes: "As we salute Carter this week, we are hailing a composer who has always been his own man, and whose music is some of the most remarkable and enduring of our time."

To celebrate Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday, Nonesuch will release Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a four-disc set, in February 2009. The discs include most of the recordings Nonesuch made of Carter’s music between 1968 and 1985, with performances by such acclaimed musicians as Paul Jacobs, Gilbert Kalish, the Composers Quartet, Jan DeGaetani, Fred Sherry, Arthur Weisberg, the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine; plus a 58-page booklet with photos, score examples, texts, an essay by Paul Griffiths, and tributes by musicians and composers.