Customer Reviews

John Adams: Harmonielehre / The Chairman Dances / Tromba lontana / Short Ride in a Fast Machine

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Four great orchestral works by the American minimalist composer John Adams are showcased on this CD: Harmonielehre, The Chairman Dances, and Two Fanfares: Tromba Lontana and Short Ride in a Fast Machine.

The title of the 40-minute Harmonielehre is based around the textbook written by the 12-tone serialist Arnold Schoenberg. While the strict world of dodecaphony never really evolved into popular circles, this minimalist work shows that the genre is willing to expand and evolve, incorporating new ideas and exploring new outlooks. The first movement of Harmonielehre starts out like we would expect; highly repetitive rhythms and slow harmonic rhythm with slight changes of meter and orchestral colors. The repetition creates a sort of mantra and the simplistic harmonic rhythm is the foil of dodecaphony. A long lugubrious melodic line shows up after the first 1/3 of the movement and is passed from voice to voice throughout the 17+ minutes. It is an outgoing and virile first movement that bristles with energy. The second movement, "The Anfortas Wound", uses some quasi-12 tone rows unusually enough, and really, the movement is evocative of pointillism rather than minimalism. A constantly shifting kaleidoscope of colors continue throughout, and a long sinuous melody wends its way from instrument to instrument. Minimalists never fear, the last movement, Meister Eckhardt and Quackie is a through and through description of John Adams' "sound". Starting in a high, ethereal tessitura, along with the help of various mallet instruments, piano, and harp, the piece expands into overlapping brass-like Doppler effects and a grand conclusion to an exhausting work. The parts are extremely virtuosic and require great stamina; for the listener too!

The witty Chairman Dances: a foxtrot for orchestra is inspired by Adams' opera Nixon in China. Madame Mao crashes in on a Presidential party and she and Chairman Mao dance the foxtrot. The driving rhythms starts right off, but occasionally, the romanticism and soaring strings of the big band take over, almost as if a different piece has started. Nearly cinematic in parts, the tongue-in-cheek Hollywood portrayal is duly noted. All ends quietly with expansive requirements for percussion, including the ending sandpaper blocks.

The two fanfares include the more lyrical and almost mystical Tromba Lontana. The echoing trumpets between searing strings create an ethereal atmosphere. The famous Short Ride in a Fast Machine is an athletic piece opening with unrelenting flourishes, woodblock, and the superb brass finale. It is a standard for orchestral, nonetheless, minimalist literature.

The British performers, Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, excel in these pieces. No holding back for these musicians, it is all energy, with a clear and clean execution, and the works on this disk sparkle. This CD has all of the standard Adams repertoire, and it is nice to have it all on one disk with an outstanding performance. While this is a great introduction to John Adams, try the examples to make sure you like it first, it's not for everyone. Otherwise, this is THE CD to have of Adams' most popular and important works.

For those who have never listened to the American composer John Adams (not the President!), this is a terrific introduction to his art. It contains his "Harmonielehre," "The Chairman Dances," and two fanfares, "Tromba Lontana" and "Short Ride on a Fast Machine." Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra are in good form with these compositions.

My first introduction to John Adams was while listening to my local NPR station (WITF-FM) 2 or 3 years ago. I was hooked as I listened to the foxtrot for orchestra, "The Chairman Dances." Obviously, this also suggests how isolated I am from contemporary music! Upon hearing this piece, I ordered the CD from Amazon. And I have surely not regretted that purchase.

"The Chairman Dances" is based on Adams' opera, "Nixon in China," but it is a separate composition. This is a wonderfully energetic piece at many points, and well illustrates Adams' Minimalist perspective. Kind of hard to imagine Chairman Mao dancing with such energy during Nixon's visit to China! The liner notes say that: "Adams' score follows this process with striking acuity, especially as the big band tune, placed into a Minimalist environment, evokes a special kind of nostalgia." This piece "livelies one up" at its most energetic. There are also changes of pace in this nearly 13 minute piece, featuring contemplative music as well. The work fades out softly and slowly, evocatively.

There are also two fanfares, one of which is aptly titled "Short Ride on a Fast Machine." A lively, energetic, frenetic piece. This 1986 composition is characteristically an Adams' piece. This was written for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. As the notes say, this ". . .is almost manic in its immediate joyousness. . . ." This is lots of fun and infused with great energy.

The long piece on this CD is Adams' "Harmonielehre." The conductor and orchestra play this well, from the striking opening on. But this review is already getting too long, so I'll close here.

This CD is well worth a listen and provides a nice introduction to the art of John Adams.

I wish there were more than 5 stars to rate this magnificent rendering of "Harmonielehre" (literally meaning "harmony lesson") which, in complete agreement with a couple other reviewers, is definitely worth the price of admission. As a musician, I listen to many things, not the least of which is the quality of a recording. The CBSO's version under the gifted baton of Sir Simon Rattle is soul-satisfyingly clean and, considering the incredible complexity of the composition, amazingly tight. Sir Rattle weaves a rich texture with subtle decrescendos in the midst of slow-but-thrillingly-sure crescendos that caused my hair to stand up and gooseflesh to appear...thus the word "satisfying" just fits all the way through. I can't for the life of me understand how anyone could view Adams' work as "repetitive"...every note and rhythmic pattern he has written here, it seems to me, fall much more into the category of "sequential," which therefore makes it all function. Counting by the musicians in this brilliant work must be very challenging...I would love to see the score. Every instrument supports every other...all dancing together even in rhythmic contrasts to one another to form this extraordinary whole. I love the mixture of the repeated rhythmic passages followed by the sweepingly romantic...every style, every color in the musical palette is represented in this piece. I cannot recommend this work, and this recording, highly enough.

Maestro Rattle is truly one of the best conductors in the world right now, and his earlier recordings with England's CBSO should not be overlooked becuase they lack a high powered orchestra. This recording of some of John Adams' finest, indeed some of the best music written in the latter half of the 20th Century, is truly not something to be missed. While true that the CBSO does at times show its weaknesses, Rattle more than makes up for it with his masterful handling of Adams' minimilism, and I for one never get bored or annyoed with the repetitive nature of the music. Don't for a second let the repetiviness of some of the detractor's comments steer you away from the works of Adams, after a few listenings, the subtle changes start of catch your ear and you hear just how intricately composed this music is. Adams is a true master in this age of music.

Rattle does a phenomenal job taking on the 40 minute "Harmonielehre," maintaining the integrity of its powerful minimalism. The work itself is exquisite, and Rattle has little difficulty bringing out its inate beauty.

His work on the other short pieces on this cd are no less fantastic. The foxtrot of "The Chairman Dances" is wonderfully maintained, and is done with great vigor. "Two Fanfares" and "Short Ride..." are marvelous, as well, with the former clearly showing the influence of both Ives and Copland, and "Short Ride" a wonderfully exhilarating one.

Some of the finest recordings of Adams to be found, search out this cd and bask in its glory.

Back when I was a teen, I used to make compilation tapes of various radio stations at random. Somedays jazz or "world music" or sometimes classical. Well, one of the classical tapes I made had "Harmonielehre: Part III. Meister Eckhardt And Quackie" on it, but I never knew who it was, other than a "minimalist" of some stripe. All that I knew was its crescendo ending struck me as one of the most transcendent pieces of music I had ever heard, or, to speak more mystically (forgive me), it was the sound I heard in my dreams, the archetypal sound of my inner life or something approximate.

For around 15 years, after becoming acquainted with Reich, Glass, even Arvo Part, I never knew who it was until I checked out this recording from my local library by chance. Finally and gloriously, I felt like I was reunited with a lost relative--that's how important this work is to me. Now that I own it, I am always blown away by it. For "Harmonielehre" alone this recording is priceless.

Should any friend ask what CD to obtain to begin an appreciation for the music of one of our greatest living composers, John Adams, this superb disc with Simon Rattle and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra would surely be at the top of the list. Rattle has selected the various sides of Adams' thoughts and offers performances that are sparkling and rich and very well performed.

For inclusiveness Rattle has elected excerpts from one of Adams operas, 'Nixon in China', in the facile and gently humorous yet tender 'The Chairman Dances', foxtrot for orchestra. For sheer showmanship there is the 'Tromba Lontana, fanfare for orchestra', and the often performed 'Short Ride in a Fast Machine, fanfare for orchestra'.

But the glory of the recording of course is the magnificent orchestral 'symphony' from 1984-85, the 'Harmonielehre'. Though this work has multiple recordings, not the least one being the premiere recording with Edo de Waart and the San Francisco Symphony, Simon Rattle brings to the work his usual insight into architecture that allows the listener to appreciate the splendors of each of the three sections.

But this listener, though long a champion for this masterwork, was still amazed to hear just how magnificently composed is 'Harmonielehre', hearing a live performance with John Adams conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The acoustic of Disney Hall allowed the huge percussion section of drums, gongs, bells, keyboards, triangles, etc and manipulations of each of these sections in the odd ways in which Adams achieves his effects to truly shine. Watching the performance enhances the auditory splendor. Rarely has the emotionally loaded aspect of the work been so revealed. One can only hope that Adams will record this performance to share the miracle. Grady Harp, April 06

Some believe that San Francisco has the best "Short Ride." I disagree. The CBSO is just as convincing and a little more aggressive, a quality for which the piece begs. Of particular delight to me is the coupling of it with "Tromba Lontana" - the works are published together as Two Fanfares for Orchestra. At any rate, the disc is rounded out by other exceptional performances, just not by works that interest me to a great degree. This disc is a must for Adams fans, though. Enjoyable at any rate.

First-off, this is a fantastic collection of some of John Adams's catchiest and creative works. But why 4 stars?

1) Harmoneliere is great. But I think a more authentic recording could be that of Edo de Waart and San Francisco Symphony, since they premiered the piece, and Adams was composer-in-residence at the time. What this recording has that the other doesn't is the brassiness that the other recording could have.

2) Short Ride was sort a let-down for me, but that's maybe because I have a recording that I think is more exciting. Marin Alsop and Bournemouth do a faster, louder, and punchier job, in my opinion.


In conclusion, don't let this review stop you from buying it. I have it, and it's still fantastic.

This is not your father's minimalism, and "endless mechanical repetition" is so far from the truth as to make you wonder whether the reviewer actually listened to the CD. "Harmonielehre" is simply brilliant. I've loved it since I bought an earlier recording a decade or so ago. While it has some Philip Glass-ish qualities to it, it's not the stark and relentless minimalism so trendy and so easily parodied in the 1980s; indeed, in its melodic passages I seem to hear at least equally the influence of, say, Shostakovich in this piece. The other pieces haven't engaged my interest as much yet, but they're newer to me; in any case, "Harmonielehre" is worth the price on its own.