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3.0 out of 5 stars
Response to frisbee95:, Jul 8 2004
I agree. His music is getting very stale (I actually found his violin concerto to be boring). Minimalism, which is a silly term anyway, is essentially gone. I've known the music of Reich, Glass, Adams, Riley, Young etc since the late 70's, and have interviewed and met all of them during my college years. A shame, since much of their earlier output is amazing. One of the best concerts I attended was the Chicago premiere of Harmonium, conducted by Felix Slatkin, at an outdoor Grant Park concert. Adams was there, and I had a great chat with him. For alternatives, there is always the music of Morton Feldman (particularly the works from 1977 on, which is arguably his best), some decent work by Charlemagne Palestine (Strumming Music is still the best, in my opinion) and a few others. Not to be self-promoting, but just to show that there is recent music with repetitive structures that I think, are of value, you may want to look at http://homepage.mac.com/dtoub/dbtmusic.html for some examples. Not putting my works in the same class as any of the others, but I'd like to think there's something new and interesting about it.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A great composer with all his influences showing, May 21 2004
What I've come to love about John Adams is the way he borrows from everybody and everything. In many ways, he's the epitome of the Post-Modern composer, because he boldly appropriates other styles and idioms and finds a way to make them his own. This new CD is a prime example of how Adams uses the old to make new. "Road Movies" is clearly the work of John Adams, but the second movement resonates so close to the 2nd movement of the Copland violin sonata that it gives me the shakes. This isn't just a quote or rip-off, but a work that honors a powerful precedent: it's almost a love song to its predecessor. "American Berserk" evokes an array of composers that Adams clearly loves, especially Nancarrow and Ives. "Hallelujah Junction" is a genuinely great tune, with inflections of Gospel and Rock piano playing thrown in to make it tasty. And while this makes my third recording of "Phrygian Gates," I can't complain, as I think it's probably the best work for piano written in the last 25 years. None of these works are "easy" to play, and they're given dynamic performances and crisp recordings, making this CD a unique pleasure.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best Adams CD, May 17 2004
I am a big fan of John Adams, he is my favourite living composer, but I feel that in recent years his work has not been up to the standard of such masterpieces as Harmonielehre, Shaker Loops, El Dorado and Phrygian Gates, one of the works recorded here (again). Phrygian Gates is the main piece on this CD and it is a brilliant piece, one of Adam's best. Rolf Hind's performance is excellent, but do we really need another recording of it? There are many recordings already available for this work, as there are for its smaller companion piece - China Gates. Of the other works on the CD only Hallelujah Junction and American Berserk are premiere recordings. Road Movies was released on a CD a couple of years ago by the California Ear Unit. Again the performance of Road Movies is excellent and the piece is quite good, especially the first movement, but it is a shadow of Adams' great works. Hallelujah Junction is the standout piece of the newer works on the CD. Its sprawling arch recalls the best of Adam's orchestral output and it has a very exciting climax recalling Weill and Lizst. Still, there's something about it that just doesn't move me like his earlier work. American Berserk is the biggest disappointment on the disk, it sounds like a piece that Adams just threw off in a few minutes from a scale formula.
I am very worried about Adam's recent output, is he losing his genius I wonder? Having heard concert performances of some of his more recent, as yet unrecorded orchestral works, such as My Father Knew Charles Ives, Guide To Strange Places and On The Transmigration of Souls, I have been unmoved by them and felt they were only reasonably good at best. All these orchestral pieces and the newer chamber works have their moments, but a work like Harmonielehre is a full 40 minutes of brilliance, something Adam's hasn't achieved in a long time. Naive and Sentimental Music comes close though. I remain optimistic and eagerly await the UK premiere of his new electric violin concerto The Dharma at Big Sur at the Proms this year. Overall though, I'm disappointed with his recent output and disappointed by this CD. I don't think it was really necessary to rerecord the pieces already recorded and there are enough new orchestral pieces that could have merited inclusion on this CD. With Adam's seemingly running out of ideas, and Reich and Glass doing the same kind of music they have done since the 80's, I fear for the future of post-minimalist music. Who can take over from them now that they appear to be stuck in ruts? Michael Torke is interesting but a bit too bland most of the time, Michael Gordon can be very exciting but a bit too weird at times. Where pray is the next great composer in this tradition sprung from minimalism? I think we may have to look to the outskirts of Europe or Africa or Asia to find someone genuinely new and interesting working along the same lines. For now though we'll have to be content with Adam's pastiches, Glass' Hollywood film scores and Reich's uninspiring multimedia work, which although inventive from a multimedia point of view, doesn't actually do anything new or interesting musically. If anyone can point me in the direction of someone new and exciting out there I'd be grateful!
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