By coincidence, a recent post exploring John Adams’ El Niño was published on the 25th anniversary of the work’s premiere in Paris on December 15, 2000. Now, let’s return to El Niño to hear the nativity oratorio’s surreal final moments. In the drama, Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus are on the road to Egypt. They flee the persecution of King Herod, who has decreed that the child be killed. A setting of a poem …
Composed in 1999, John Adams’ nativity oratorio, El Niño (“the child”), is a meditation on the nature of miracles. Based on the New Testament gospels, which Adams celebrates as “little more than long sequences of miracles,” the narrative structure is similar to that of Handel’s Messiah. Adams writes, Narrative passages alternate with arias and choruses that meditate or reflect on the principal themes. Among those could be mentioned the mystery of the Conception and …
For American composer John Adams (b. 1947), the inspiration for the solo piano work, China Gates, came on an endlessly rainy day in San Francisco during the winter of 1977. Adams recalls the gentle, hypnotic patter of the rain hitting the roof of his cottage near the Pacific Ocean. This natural counterpoint gave rise to the repetitive patterns of China Gates, a brief companion composition to Adams’ Phrygian Gates, composed during the same period. “Gates,” …
Harmonium, a towering choral symphony set in three movements, is one of the earliest major works of American composer John Adams (b. 1947). It was composed in 1980 for the opening season of Davies Symphony Hall, the home of the San Francisco Symphony. Following such pieces as Common Tones in Simple Time and Phrygian Gates, it is music which expands on the pulse-and-pattern Minimalism of Steve Reich.’ The titles of the three poems …
“Hallelujah Junction is a small truck stop on Highway 49 in the High Sierras on the California-Nevada border near where I have a small cabin,” explains American composer John Adams. “One can only speculate on its beginnings in the era of prospectors and Gold Rush speculators (although a recent visit revealed that cappuccino is now available there).” For Adams, Hallelujah Junction was “a great title looking for a piece.” Scored for two “dueling …
What better way to ring in the new year than with a fanfare? Composed in 1986, John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine is a fanfare for an age of streamlined sports cars and space travel. It is an ecstatic musical joyride which, in the words of the composer, evokes a combination of “excitement and thrill, just on the edge of anxiety or terror.” The inspiration came from Adams’ memory of a harrowing …
Pianist Jeremy Denk describes John Adams’ I Still Play as “a piece about a long friendship, and about connection and farewell.” Adams composed the fleeting set of variations for solo piano in 2017 to commemorate the retirement of Robert Hurwitz, the longtime president of Nonesuch Records. The piece, which the composer has characterized as “Satie meets Bill Evans,” unfolds over a restless chromatic bass line as a dreamy, haunting waltz. Fragments from Bach’s …