John Adams

Of all of the minimalists, Adams does the least for me. Unless you like the operas (which I heartily don't, whereas I rather like many of Glass's) then if you don't the pieces you mention (plus good on Chairman Dances from Nixon In China), I suspect he isn't for you.

Glass - yes, Reich - yes, Riley - yes, ten Holt - yes, Adams - meh.

I'm very fond of 'Shaker Loops'.

I only know one recording well, so can't offer an informed suggestion for the best recording.

I really like Adams, I saw that City Noir, it has all the same stuff you get in his orchestral pieces. I mentioned to a friend that it had nothing new to it. He has diverged in smaller pieces. I really enjoy Grand Pianola Music tho the first piece on the CD I don't care for. That was criticized at teh time for being too lush and romantic. I put it on and get swept away and then watch friends jump at one point.

There is also a CD Gnarley Buttons that is for small ensembles, a cycle of short clarinet pieces that can be very playful, and then Book of Johns Dances with Kronos Qt which I really enjoy. All on the CD. I just put it on.

He has a CD where he put together mid 20th C American composers and added one or two called American Elegies, really quite beautiful. Nice to hear a mixture of what impressed him as conductor.

He has 2 large works I really like. Violin Concerto which is tough going, I heard a premiere in LA, I didn't like it tho the 2nd mvmt was quite beautiful, it also has an orchestral Shaker Loops on it. I took a friend who didn't know classical music and he hated every moment. I never invited him to a music event again, he liked broadway shows, Ugh!

A couple years later I heard Naive and Sentimental Music premier, it's conducted by Salonen, they have a close friendship. It just knocks my socks off, but it's like the Rite of Spring it can drive others MAD but ya gotta hear it loud once in a while when no one is home.

I've said in the past that N&S is a good close to the century that started with the Rite, I've had many nasty comments from music people on that comparison, but they didnt like Adams from the start. It's quite a raucous piece.

It was after I heard N&S Music that I bought the Violin Concerto and it is just wonderful. Tough piece tho.

Adams can be so disappointing, so often. Shaker loops is good, but may I commend to you - including those that, like me, wish he delivered top notch music more often - Harmonium.

This is a piece for chorus and orchestra (no soloists) which runs around 40 minutes. It is just beautifully judged and, as a result, tremendously exciting. The first movement - an admittedly incongruous setting of Donne's poem Negative love - is one long composed crescendo which just hooks you in at the start and doesn't let you go until it climaxes ten or so minutes later. Having sung the work several times (indeed I believe our - Crouch End Festival Chorus's - programming of the work in the nineties resulted in it being taken up both by Birmingham and the Proms), I can attest to its being a tough sing but exhilarating.

The middle movement - a contrastingly slow and straightforward setting of Dickinson's Because I could not stop for Death - is remarkably poignant; and the finale is suitably uproarious.

Structurally and technically, one of his best put together works.

Edo de Waart's San Francisco recording on ECM is good enough. Adams's own recording - also San Francisco - is good, though the pianissimo opening is let down by the chorus's page turns: completely unnecessary, and careless on the part of the producer.

Adams can be so disappointing, so often. Shaker loops is good, but may I commend to you - including those that, like me, wish he delivered top notch music more often - Harmonium.

This is a piece for chorus and orchestra (no soloists) which runs around 40 minutes. It is just beautifully judged and, as a result, tremendously exciting. The first movement - an admittedly incongruous setting of Donne's poem Negative love - is one long composed crescendo which just hooks you in at the start and doesn't let you go until it climaxes ten or so minutes later. Having sung the work several times (indeed I believe our - Crouch End Festival Chorus's - programming of the work in the nineties resulted in it being taken up both by Birmingham and the Proms), I can attest to its being a tough sing but exhilarating.

The middle movement - a contrastingly slow and straightforward setting of Dickinson's Because I could not stop for Death - is remarkably poignant; and the finale is suitably uproarious.

Structurally and technically, one of his best put together works.

Edo de Waart's San Francisco recording on ECM is good enough. Adams's own recording - also San Francisco - is good, though the pianissimo opening is let down by the chorus's page turns: completely unnecessary, and careless on the part of the producer.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeremy Marchant:
Adams can be so disappointing, so often. Shaker loops is good, but may I commend to you - including those that, like me, wish he delivered top notch music more often - Harmonium.

Edo de Waart's San Francisco recording on ECM is good enough.

Thanks for this Jeremy, I ordered the Edo de Waart.

oh I had heard Harmonium once I think when it first came out, It was too advanced for me. I was about 31 at the time and too impatient for slow music. I'll have to reconsider it Jeremy, thanks.

The ones that really disappointed me were El Nino and his latest The Rain Tree. but I haven't given that more than one listen. Oh and Nixon in China, just dull. Tho I like his 2 later operas

A dark one is The Wound Dresser . Poem by Walt Whitman about his tending the wounded after the Civil War it is sung by Baritone Sanford Sylvan and gives a trumpet player Chris Gekker but it's subtle playing. Then Fearful Symmetries is one of his rocking minimalist driving force pieces.