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John Adams's opera "Nixon in China" premiered in San Francisco (I
think, maybe L.A.), and was a resounding flop. Most of the audience walked
out midway thru' the opera. At least that is what the wire services said.
I haven't heard "Nixon in China", but there are several disks containing
John Adam's music. Most of the music is played by the San Fransisco Orchestra
under the direction of Edo de Waart. The only composition I've heard is
"Shaker Loops" which on the CD is paired with Steve Reich's
"Vermont Counterpoint" (I think), the release is on Nonesuch.
- Sudhir.
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| John Adams -- good stuff in my book. The only recording I have
is 'Hamonielehre' w/Edo Da Waart and the San Francisco Symphony.
He is usually lumped with the minimalists, but that's really not
fair. The first time I heard Harmonielehre, I recognized a lot
of stuff from the minimalist idiom, but also a fair amount of music
that you can sink your teeth into (to garble metaphors a bit).
I've heard excerpts from The Chairman Dances and liked what I heard.
A friend of mine has played it and couldn't stop talking about it,
but then she's pretty excitable.
George
(oh -- my modern music prejudices are along these lines:
Philip Glass is a crashing bore
John Adams is pretty darn good
Rogers Sessions (recently deceased) is real darn good
So is Pierre Boulez.
Xenakis makes my brain hurt -- I think I like that.
Schoenberg (not too modern anymore) is overrated.
Berg (also not too modern) is underrated.
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| This weekend the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra played "Short Ride in a
Fast Machine", a fanfare for 2 synths and orchestra, directed by Edo de Waart.
Actually they played it without the synthesizers. I liked it sufficiently
to look for and buy it, and along with this piece, the disk has The Chairman
Dances, Christian Zeal and Activity, Tromba Iontana and Common Tones in
Simple Time. The performances are by the S. F. Orchestra under Edo de Waart.
I agree that Adams's music cannot easily be classified as minimalist, there
is a lot more (if you'll excuse the pun); just listen to Christian Zeal. It
seems more like a mixture of the minimalist idiom with something borrowed
from the early Romanticists (Berlioz and Mendelsohn), though I'm not sure
many listeners would agree. I point to the elaborate literary programs with
the scores and the immensely descriptive music (more so than any contemporary
composer). From the liner notes, it does look like The Chairman Dances aren't
a part of but a by-product from his work on the opera, "Nixon in China".
More information on the composer, came from WGBH : he was born and brought up
in Worcester, MA and taught first by his father. "Short Ride" was commissioned
by the Great Woods Festival to open the first summer season of the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra.
There is an interesting description of Chairman Dances and Nixon in China
in the liner notes -
Nixon in China is set in three days of President Nixon's visit to Beijing in
February 1972, one act for each day. The single scene of the third act takes
place in the Great Hall of the People, where there is yet another exhausting
banquet, this one hosted by the Americans. Here is the situation as described
in a preface to the score of The Chairman Dances:
Madame Mao, alias Jiang Ching, has gatecrashed the
Presidential banquet. She is seen standing first
where she is most in the way of the waiters. After
a few minutes, she brings out a box of paper lanterns
and hangs them around the hall, then strips down to
a cheongsam, skin-tight form the neck to ankle, and
slit up to the hip. She signals the orchestra to play
and begins to dance by herself. Mao is becoming excited.
He steps down from his portrait on the wall and they begin
to foxtrot together. They are back in Yenan, the night is
warm, they are dancing to the gramophone .........
Act Three, in which both reminiscing couples, the Nixons and the Maos, find
themselves contrasting the vitality and the optimism of youth with their
present condition of age and power, is full of shadows; Jiang Ching's and Mao's
foxtrot in the opera is therefore more melancholy than The Chairman Dances.
This is, uninhibitedly, a cabaret number, an entertainment, and a funny piece;
as the Chairman and the former actress turned Deputy Head of the Cultural
Revolution make their long trip back through time they turn into Fred and
Ginger. The chugging music we first hear is associated with Mao; the
seductive swaying-hips melody - La Valse humorously translated across immense
distances- is Jiang Ching's. You might imagine the piano part at the end being
played by Richard Nixon.
Enjoy,
Sudhir.
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Re: .4
I also have the CD of "Harmonielehre"; so far it has not hit me
over the head, but it is slowly growing on me.
The most "minimal" part to me is the opening, which has orchestral
hits repeated over and over until you think the disk is stuck.
Then the good stuff starts.
Like most new music, it will no doubt be a few years before I really
appreciate it. Or decide it is just garbage.
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