John Adams (b. 1947)
Piano, Vocal and Chamber Works
Laura Bohn (soprano)
Rosanne Philippens (violin)
Ralph van Raat, Maarten van Veen (piano)
rec. 2021/25, Musiekgebouw Amsterdam, The Netherlands
No texts
Naxos 8.559910 [64]
I admire John Adams – which does not mean that I like everything he writes – and it is good that he is getting new recordings. However, this is a decidedly odd compilation. It has only two works in their original form; the rest are transcriptions. Among these, there is one conspicuous success and one conspicuous failure.
The two original works come first. Road Movies is a sonata for violin and piano. Adams has a playful side, which occasionally comes out in the titles of his works, as in some on this disc, or in Meister Eckhardt and Quackie or Son of Chamber Symphony. However, although he likes fun, it is, if I may use an oxymoron, serious fun, and Road Movies, for all the jokiness of its overall and individual movement titles, is a good piece. In it you can hear Adams’s minimalist origins as well as, I fancy, an influence from Stravinsky’s Duo Concertant, which is also a sonata for violin and piano by another name. The first movement, Relaxed Groove, has a continuous sense of movement. The slow movement, Meditative, features long violin lines over slow moving piano harmonies. The finale, 40% Swing – I don’t know what this means – is a perpetuo moto with syncopation and many irregular accents. It is confidently delivered by Rosanne Philippens and Ralph van Raat.
The we have a miniature, Still Play, subtitled Pocket Variations for Solo Piano. This is a gentle set of variations, each of which explores a different style, though I seem to detect an overall influence of Schumann.
Roll over Beethoven is as arrangement for two pianos of Adams’s second string quartet, made by Preben Antonesi. The quartet itself is under a cloud: it has not been recorded and is currently unavailable for performance pending revision. So this two piano version is currently the only way to hear it. It draws on two late piano works by Beethoven, the sonata Op. 110 and the Diabelli Variations, and those who know those works will recognise fragments of them in Adams’s composition. It is a tribute to the strength of his work that it is not immediately dwarfed by the Beethoven passages and I found both movements full of a Beethovenian driving energy. The version for two pianos works well – I have no idea how it was as a quartet. This was the arrangement I consider a conspicuous success.
Then we have three operatic arias, but accompanied, not by the original orchestra, but in piano versions by others than the composer. Am I in Your Light? is from the opera Doctor Atomic, about Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb. The libretto is taken from documents of the time; my view, when I saw the opera some years ago, was that it lacked a centre. The aria here is sung by Kitty Oppenheimer and is lyrical in an arioso style.
There are then two arias from I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky. This Adams describes as a songplay. It deals with the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles and its aftermath. In it he adopts popular idioms and uses a small stage band. Shades of Kurt Weill, you may say, but Adams’s melodies have nothing like the zip and crackle of Weill’s and, indeed the work has not been a success. Consuelo’s Dream is the vision by an immigrant of a world without fear, while Leila’s Song presents the dilemma of a young woman. All these are competently done, but given that Doctor Atomic is available on both DVD and CD and I Was Looking at the Ceiling has been recorded complete by Naxos, these versions seem pointless.
Finally we have Short Ride in a Fast Machine. This is a deservedly popular curtain raiser. Here it is given in a version for piano duet. This falls quite flat. This piece needs its orchestral colours to come off. This is the conspicuous failure here, which is odd given that the same arranger was responsible for Roll over Beethoven, which I consider a success.
There are other recordings of all the works here, and in these versions, though not in this combination. The texts of the vocal works are not given. That of Am I in Your Light? and Consuelo’s Dream can be found online, but. I couldn’t find the text of Leila’s Song on line. The performances and recordings are good, but I come back to my starting point: what a curious compilation.
Stephen Barber
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
Road Movies (1995)
I Still Play – Pocket Variations for Solo Piano (2017)
Roll over Beethoven (2014) arr. for two pianos from Second String quartet by Preben Antonsen (2016)
Am I in Your Light? from Doctor Atomic (2005), arr. for voice and piano by Chilose Okashiro (2018)
Consuelo’s Dream from I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Saw the Sky (1995) arr. for voice and piano by J. McGinn (2012)
Leila’s Song: Alone (Again or At Last) from I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Saw the Sky (1995) arr. for voice and piano by J. McGinn (2012)
Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986) arr. P Antonsen for piano four hands (2018)
