John Adams, composer & conductor

American Record Guide, May/June 2009, p.31.
Review of a series of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concerts in January. Music included:
The Nixon Tapes, Version III
Doctor Atomic (Symphony)
On the Transmigration of Souls

Celebrating Rachmaninoff

Toradze Studio revels in Rachmaninoff Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Arts & Entertainment.

Harald Vogel

Restored organ pipes up at St. Paul Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Arts & Entertainment.

1969

What would happen if John Lennon met Karlheinz Stockhausen on Feb.9, 1969? New music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, portrayed the hypothetical meeting between the two luminaries (the two may have scheduled a meeting, but a snowstorm in NYC prevented Lennon from making it to Lukas Foss' apartment) through a musical and sound scape portrait of the seminal year in American political history. The work, 1969, is "conceived" by Alan Pierson and incorporates transcriptions for Alarm Will Sound's instrumental make-up by its resident members. It received its second performance at the New Hazlett Theatre in Pittsburgh tonight.

Both figures were portrayed breathtakingly well by John Walker (Lennon) and Christopher Evan Welch (K. Stockhausen). Walker captured many of Lennon's nuances in the work's opening vignette, "A Day in the Life". Luciano Berio and Leonard Bernstein were also represented, bridging the gap between Lennon's "left-field [sic?] rock and roll" and Stockhausen's "left-field avant garde." Extended musical excerpts from Bernstein's Mass and Berio's O King and Sinfonia filled out the musical tapestry of the work as a whole.

Ultimately, 1969 provides much of the political and historical context for the works composed and premiered in this year. Giving 1969 more social and political impact, the 1968 assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. are heavily referenced in the work, as well as the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (Richard Nixon won the Presidential election). The work presented by Alarm Will Sound provides a great conduit into the larger works that 1969 references. It is rife with inside jokes between Lennon and Stockhausen - especially funny is their exchange about HOW tape music is created (potentiometers versus beer bottles).

At its artistic level, 1969 is a great achievement. It also comes off as a musical history lesson - not the stuffy edition found in many music history classes, but a lively, visually stimulating and narratively driven summary of the musical "revolutions" occurring at the end of the decade. These musical revolutions are crystallized in the coming together of (seemingly) disparate musical philosophies: Popular rock, avant garde composition, and traditional concert halls reshaping their own relationship with the past and future of concert music.

In the end, Stockhausen is portrayed as a loon (though his music is presented with utmost sincerity), Lennon as a feel-good dreamer, and Berio and Bernstein as the aesthetic middle men. The problem that each composer deals with in their own way is brought to the surface - how does music affect the outcome of humanity (not just the lives of the audience) and how does the creation of new music mean anything in a turbulent cultural time.

John Williams' "Simple Gifts"

John Williams' pageantry of inauguration brought to PSO stage Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Arts & Entertainment.

Das Wohltemperirte Clavier

Egarr embellishes Bach's 'Clavier.' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Arts & Entertainment. 17 November 2008.

Betsy Jolas

Composer crosses cultures and seas with 'Teletalks.' Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Arts & Entertainment. 30 October 2008.

Arabella Steinbacher, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Janowski, Steinbacher excel with Pittsburgh Symphony. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Arts & Entertainment. 25 October 2008.

John Adams at Music on the Edge

John Adams spoke at tonight's Music on the Edge concert at Pitt. He said some interesting things, but his comment about this moderately well attended concert being like the "old days" showed how removed he is from the trenches of presenting new music concerts. Adams' traveled to Pittsburgh from New York where his opera "Doctor Atomic" is being presented by the Metropolitan Opera. Comparing that venue to a concert in Bellefield Auditorium is like going from Washington DC to Fairbanks Alaska. The NY Times has a good video of the "Atomic" production.

Tonight, Adams recounted his generative ideas for "Shaker Loops" (performed on the program) and answered some audience questions about composing in the 20th/21st centuries and his creative relationship with opera.

• He defended the difficulty of being a composer in America because the current composers must find their own voice, as opposed to Mozart and Schubert who could write (better than anyone else) in an inherited and relevant style.
• He talked about the modularity of Shaker Loops and how it began as a failed string quartet, morphing through a modular organization of repeated loops dependent on a conductor for pacing, becoming the "written out" version that is performed and recorded now.
• And he admitted that he doesn't like to go to operas, preferring instead to listen at home with a favorite recording.

He also plugged his new autobiography and suggested reading the chapters under "Faulty Circuits" for more information on how he developed as a composer.

In addition to the concert's concluding performance of "Shaker Loops," Jonny Greenwood's "Superhet Popcorn Receiver," Amy Williams' "Cineshape 2," and Roger Zahab's "vibrant life" were presented by Pittsburgh freelance musicians and University students.

Pittsburgh Symphony Pops

Singer provides intimate portrait of Garland with Pittsburgh Symphony Pops. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, A&E. 3 October 2007.

Linda Eder, vocalist and Marvin Hamlisch, conductor.