Over at The New Criterion, I have a post on a new recording by Gidon Kremer, the Latvian violinist. He and his “band” (the Kremerata Baltica) present works by four living composers, starting with Philip Glass. In my post, I quote Kremer on contemporary music. He says, among other things, that some people “consider most of the tonal scores created in the 20th and 21st centuries to be a betrayal of New Music.”

This reminded me of something, which I’d like to share with you, here on the Corner. In 2008, I interviewed Elliott Carter, on the occasion of his hundredth birthday. (For my “Carterpalooza” — this does not refer to Jimmy — go here.) I asked him about the so-called Neo-Romantics, including Samuel Barber. Could he respect them, even if he was in a totally different camp?

He said, “Well, some of us felt that the kind of music Sam wrote had already been done, only done better than anybody could do it now. Therefore there was no reason to do it now.” With a grin, he added, “What Sam did was deplorable,” but his music, nonetheless, “is rather good.”

When Carter said that word “deplorable,” a shiver went down my spine — these modernists can be very harsh, ideological, and illiberal. Still, Carter was one of the most intelligent people I have ever encountered, and my conversation with him was one of the most interesting I can remember.