Munich Philharmonic: Adams / DebussyJohn Adams (conductor), Christiane Karg (soprano)
John Adams conducts John Adams! Fitting to the focus on American composers at the beginning of the year, this concert is a miniature portrait of the United States’ pre-eminent contemporary composers.
John Adams conducts John Adams! Fitting to the focus on American composers at the beginning of the year, this concert is a miniature portrait of the United States’ pre-eminent contemporary composers.
One of Adams’ most frequently performed works, the orchestral fanfare Short Ride in a Fast Machine, evokes the excitement and terror of a night-time ride in a high-revving sports car. At the end, the fast-paced work leaves both orchestra and audience breathless.
Debussy wrote his Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire in 1889, at a time when he had not yet demonised Wagner’s influence as a poisonous sting in French music. With the orchestration of four of the five songs, Adams creates a musical panorama of the era around 1890. Christiane Karg’s lyrical, warm soprano voice magnifies the romantic, dreamy mood of the works.
Adams’ “Harmonielehre” – the title refers to Arnold Schönberg’s work of music theory by the same name – combines minimalist elements with tonal opulence and became a modern classic after it premiered in 1985. The inspiration for the last movement of the three-part work came to Adams in a surreal dream centred on the medieval mystic Meister Eckhardt.
Programme
- John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine, fanfare for orchestra
- Claude Debussy: Le Livre de Baudelaire, four songs from Debussy’s Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire (orchestrated by John Adams)
- John Adams: Harmonielehre for grand orchestra
