20C: Carter: Symphonia: Sum Fluxae Pretium Spei

Elliott Carters Symphonia is a mighty triptych with a suitably splendid subtitle: Sum fluxae pretium spei is a line from a poem by Richard Crashaw meaning I am the prize of flowing hope, but what lies behind the apparently portentous Latin is a conception that is brilliant, witty and slightly capricious. The constituent parts of Symphonia were composed for three different orchestras, but they have a single inspiration in common the enchantingly strange fantasy evoked by the metaphysical poet Richard Crashaw (c. 1613 1649) in his 157-line Latin poem Bulla (The Bubble), which lies at the heart of all three pieces.