Works of Elliott Carter and Charles Ives, two classics of the American modernist composition, will be performed at the Ligeti Ensemble’s first concert of the 2019-2020 season. At the age of 103, in the final year of his life, Carter was still active: the premiere of Two Controversies and a Conversation took place in 2012 at the New York Metropolitan Museum. One of the key concepts in the ‘pocket-sized’ double chamber concerto for pianist and percussion soloist is the dialogue, just as it is also in the Clarinet Concerto: the premiere of the seven-movement piece, composed in 1996 for the 20th anniversary of the Ensemble InterContemporain, was conducted by Pierre Boulez. Charles Ives, cult-hero of American music, who was also encouraging Carter in the beginning of his career, composed his Symphony No. 3 in the first decade of the last century. However, despite that according to legend, Gustav Mahler, who was in charge of America at the time, became interested in the work, the premiere took place only in 1946, almost four decades later. Actually, the patient master was immediately rewarded with a Pulitzer Prize for this three-movement symphony.