The John Adams Album (CD review)

Common Tones in Simple Time; Harmonielehre; Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Kent Nagano, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Decca 483 4938.



By Karl W. Nehring



For music lovers who may not be familiar with the music of American composer John Adams (b. 1947), this recording of some of his orchestral music might be the perfect introduction. Under the direction of Kent Nagano, who has long been an advocate of Adams's music, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra performs three compelling compositions that are "modern" enough to sound new and different but at the same time "comfortable" enough in terms of harmony, melody, and rhythm that they should be entertaining for all but the most conservative of listeners.



The disc opens with one of his earlier scores for orchestra, Common Tones in Simple Time, composed in 1979. The piece carries a strong rhythmic pulse throughout, recalling the days when Adams was looked upon as one of the new "Minimalist" composers (others so characterized included Philip Glass and Steve Reich), but the orchestral colors are rich, far from what could reasonably described as minimal. I had enjoyed hearing this piece decades ago on a recording I cannot now recall by whom, but had not heard it in quite some time and was quite excited to hear it again. It evokes feelings of space, wonder, possibility, and hope. Can it really be 40 years since it was composed? My goodness…



Next up is Harmonielehre (1985), a three-movement piece that could be thought of as a kind of symphony (Adams has never composed a formal symphony, alas – such a work is high on my musical wish list). A similar sort of composition would be Hindemith's Symphony: Mathis der Maler, a symphony in three movements: Engelkonzert (Angelic Concert), Grablegung (Entombment), and Versuchung des heiligen Antonius (The Temptation of Saint Anthony). The titles of the movements refer to paintings by Mathias Grunewald and the work feels more like a series of three tone poems than a symphony. Harmonielehre, by contrast, feels more like a symphony, although the titles of its three movements are a mixed blend of the symphonic-sounding straightforward ("First movement") and the tone-poemish-sounding strange ("The Anfortas Wound" and "Meister Eckhardt and Quackie"). Those interested in finding out more about these titles and the piece overall would do well to read Adams's own exposition at his informative website.

Kent Nagano

The first movement begins with pounding chords in an insistent rhythm that is pretty much sustained throughout. At times, prominent woodwinds will remind some listeners of the scoring of Sibelius. Although the movement does not have a descriptive title, the music arouses in my admittedly unfettered mind imagery of motion past a background of mountains, forests, and other natural wonders. As the movement comes to an end, the rhythm remains in the percussion as the volume fades, the music that started with a bang ending in a whimper. The second movement is like an adagio, brooding music short on percussion with woodwinds playing in the middle registers, then some brass, a trumpet sounding a plaintive call, building to a climax with the trumpet on top, reminiscent of Mahler. The movement ends with the brass section yielding to the strings playing softly. The third movement reverts to the rhythmic emphasis and vigorous energy of the first movement, but rather than fading into a soft ending sustains its musical vigor throughout. As a whole, Harmonielehre truly does sound like a symphony, a splendid symphony indeed.



The final piece in this collection is the one most likely to be familiar to classical music fans, as it has been often recorded and widely performed in concert. As the title "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" might suggest, the music is fast and exhilarating, surging forward with great energy, ending the program on this CD with a colorful flourish.



Although as I said at the outset I find this a recommendable release, I do have a couple of minor quibbles. First, the liner notes are nearly unreadable because of their small font size and some truly unfortunate color choices. What were they thinking? Second, the sound quality, although certainly adequate, left me wishing for a bit more bass (I like big bass and I cannot lie). The sound does not seem quite up to the lofty standards set by those classic Dutoit/OSM recordings of decades past. Still, the generous program (the first time I heard Harmonielehre was on a CD that contained only that piece) of truly entertaining and stimulating music makes this a release of genuine value.



KWN



To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:

Adams: Absolute Jest (SACD review)

Also, Grand Pianola Music. St. Lawrence String Quartet; Michael Tilson Thomas; John Adams; San Francisco Symphony. SFS Media SFS 821936-0063-2.



It is isn't hard to see why American John Adams (b. 1947) is among the world's most-popular living classical composers. Wikipedia says "The music of John Adams is usually categorized as minimalist or post-minimalist although in interview he has categorised himself as a 'post-style' composer. While Adams employs minimalist techniques, such as repeating patterns, he is not a strict follower of the movement." No, more likely, people don't really categorize Adams; they simply like his stuff. He produces a kind of modern music that, dare I say it, audiences actually enjoy. I tease, of course, but it seems like a lot of modern classical composers resent listeners liking their music; it smacks too much of populism. What am I doing wrong? People like it.



Well, Adams seldom does anything musically wrong, and here he gives us one of his newest works, Absolute Jest, along with another piece in a similar vein from thirty-odd years earlier, Grand Pianola Music. Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony in the newer work, while the composer himself leads the orchestra in the older one.



The first work on the album is Absolute Jest (2013), which Adams describes as "a colossal twenty-five-minute scherzo in which I take fragments of Beethoven's music and subject them to my own peculiar developmental techniques, some of which I've derived over years of using 'radicalizing' musical software. The Beethoven ideas, mostly from the quartets Opus 131, 135, and the Grosse Fugue, are compact and succinct, lending themselves naturally to fantasy and invention. A swinging 6/8 figure reminiscent of the Seventh Symphony launches the piece, but this is interlaced with some famous 'tattoos' including the Ninth Symphony scherzo." Then music historian Larry Rothe adds, "Absolute Jest is post Minimalist Adams. The seed came when he heard Michael Tilson Thomas conduct Pulcinella, in which Stravinsky recast works by eighteenth-century Italian composers in his own musical language. Adams conceived a similar scheme, riffing on Beethoven scherzos. Beethoven's scherzos may be jokes, but Adams emphasizes they are jokes on a high plane. He loves the word 'jest,' derived from the Latin 'gesta,' a notable deed. A jest is not therefore by definition a thigh-slapper, nor is Absolute Jest a comedy." Rothe goes on to quote Adams: "To Beethoven, a scherzo is this inspired sense of movement and happiness. I wanted my work to be invested with that happiness."



Although Adams may not have intended Absolute Jest as a comedy, one cannot help but smile when the music breaks out into familiar bits and pieces of Beethoven. And Tilson Thomas does not shy away from the music's wittier passages, making it sound like high, good fun.

Michael Tilson Thomas

Adams wrote the piece in eight movements for orchestra and string quartet, the "Beginning" a lengthy, spacious, swooping affair, with intermittent hints of Beethoven, the most obvious coming from the Ninth Symphony. The remaining movements last about one to five minutes each, most of them more animated than the opening section, except for the somewhat eerie, haunting fourth segment. The music is easily accessible, and Tilson Thomas and company make it highly enjoyable.



The second work on the disc is the Grand Pianola Music from 1982. Adams says of it, "...from the start I knew that I would have to shape my own language and find a way to get around Minimalism's rigor and endless pattern-weaving and form a language that was more dramatic and emotionally complex. ...Grand Pianola Music does it in a way that is not only meditative and trance-like, but also brash and picaresque."



Adams divided this one into three parts (fast, slow, fast), although the entire work is about six minutes longer than the newer one. It appears a tad simpler and more repetitive than the newer work, too, with traces of Ives and even Copland in its structure and wordless vocals interspersed with piano solos and accompaniment (Orli Shaham). Like the music of Ives, you'll hear a little of everything here, from the aforementioned vocals and piano to marches, gospel, and church hymns. Of the final movement, Adams explains that it yields up "a tune that seems like an 'oldie,' the words for which no one can quite remember." It's quite a lot of fun, actually.



Producer Jack Vad and engineers Roni Jules, Gus Pollek, Jonathan Stevens, and Dann Thompson recorded the music live at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, CA in May 2013 and January 2015. They recorded it in 96kHz/24-bit audio (Absolute Jest) and PCM 192kHz/24-bit (Grand Pianola Music) for hybrid SACD two-channel stereo or multichannel playback. I listened to the two-channel stereo SACD track.



Before I talk about the sound, however, I suppose for the benefit of those of you interested in live recordings, I should say a word about audience noise. For the most part, there isn't any. But there is applause. I say "but" because some listeners don't mind it, while for me it tends to draw my attention away from a performance. In this case, the disc's producers have edited out any applause between the two major works but left it in at the end. So, for me it's still annoying but at least not as annoying as it could have been.



Now, to the sound: It's slightly less close than usual in a live recording, and hall reflections and long decay times appear more in evidence. If anything, the sound seems softer than I've heard it before from this venue and ensemble, and even more natural and easy on the ear. The orchestral spread is quite wide and natural, with a reasonable amount of depth; and the frequency response, while not exactly reaching the heights of the treble or depths of the bass sound more than adequate for the occasion.



JJP



To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

Aurora Orchestra: Road Trip (CD review)

Sam Amidon, voice and guitar; Dawn Landes, voice; Nicholas Collon, Aurora Orchestra. Warner Classics 0825646327911.



Conductors Nicholas Collon and Robin Ticciati founded the adventurous young British chamber orchestra Aurora in 2005. Since then, they have been receiving good reviews not only for their performance style but for their diverse programming, playing everything from Baroque to modern music. Road Trip (oddly misspelled as one word on the cover and the disc) appears to be the orchestra's debut album.



The ensemble plays beautifully, a precision instrument yet full of spunk and spark. They remind me a lot of San Francisco's New Century Chamber Orchestra and New York City's The Knights. The question I have, though, is how many classical listeners buy record albums because of favorite orchestras rather than favorite soloists or favorite composers. I dunno; well, not my business.



A look at the disc's program shows just how diverse Aurora's material is with works by American composers John Adams, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Paul Simon, and several traditional numbers arranged by Nico Muhly. The program is both daring and conventional at the same time.



Whatever, first up (after a brief introduction) is Chamber Symphony by John Adams (b. 1947). Adams himself writes that Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony was his inspiration for this 1992 composition, as were some animated cartoons. So, it's understandable the work involves a good degree of high spirits and kinetic energy. The Aurora Orchestra capture the fun of the three-movement piece with apparent glee, right up until the closing mixture of clashing gaiety.

Next are several tunes arranged by Nico Muhly (b. 1981): "Reynardine," "The Brown Girl," and, closing the set, Paul Simon's "Hearts and Bones." "Reynardine" tells the story of a young girl and a werewolf, nicely sung by Sam Amidon and smartly accompanied by Aurora. Singer Dawn Landes does a sweet-voiced rendition of "The Brown Girl," a lovely lilt always present in the music. Then Sam Amidon again does the voice and guitar work on Simon's tune, making a fitting conclusion to this "road trip."

Nicholas Collon

The Housatonic at Stockbridge from Three Places in New England by Charles Ives (1874-1954) was for me the highlight of the program. The work, though brief, captures the soft, misty moods of a quiet river at night, the orchestra always at the command of the music. It's wonderfully evocative in a gentle, comforting manner, culminating in the sound of a church spiritual across the way before falling back into silence.



And there is Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland (1900-1990), the familiar piece performed in its original version for thirteen instruments. Because Copland's work is probably the most familiar thing on the program, it has the most competition on disc, including the composer's own 1973 recording for chamber orchestra (which is a bit longer and more complete than the suite we get here). Copland marks the first movement "Very slowly," and that's exactly how the Aurora Orchestra plays it, very slowly indeed. It sets the tone and creates the atmosphere for the remainder of the work. Although taking things a tad more leisurely than other recorded performances I've heard, the Aurora players make the composition as colorful and engaging as any you'll find, and they do up the famous variations on a Shaker hymn in a most-gentle and poignant fashion.



Raphael Mouterde engineered and produced the album, recorded at Kings Place, London in January and April 2014. The sound is about as ideal as one could want, with plenty of transparency in the midrange and bloom and air around the instruments. In other words, it sounds real, dimensional, each player in the ensemble clearly delineated yet blending into the whole. With its smooth, detailed response, the sound is among the best I've heard from a new recording in quite some time.



JJP



To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here: