BSO and Adams and That Other Guy
This week, composer John Adams is conducting the concerts by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, heard Friday evening in a not so full Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. For good or ill, new music director Marin Alsop was the draw for the large audiences last week. Judging by the inordinate grumbling from older patrons seated near me, many people stayed away because of Adams, although in the spectrum of living composers, his music is hardly daunting. Appearing first with a microphone, Adams honored the title of this series of concerts, "The Composer in His Own Words" (although he joked that composers "write music so we don't have to explain ourselves"), by introducing the two pieces he was conducting on the first half. He has conducted both works on recordings from around the time each was premiered.
Available at Amazon: Fearful Symmetries / The Wound-Dresser, Orchestra of St. Luke's (1989) The Dharma at Big Sur / My Father Knew Charles Ives, BBC Symphony Orchestra (2006) |
The second movement, a nocturne titled "Lake" (after Lake Winnipesaukee), combined a beautifully played Japanese-style oboe solo, with the microtonal bends of the traditional shakuhachi, and nicely incorporated swing sounds from the brass section echoing across the lake from a bandstand. Not acknowledged by Adams, however, were definite echoes of Britten's Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. The climax of the third movement ("Mountain") was disappointingly non-transcendent. Even more welcome than this relatively new work was the chance to hear The Wound-Dresser, from 1988, sung by baritone Sanford Sylvan, for whom it was composed. Set to some of the words from the devastating Civil War poem by Walt Whitman, written when he served as a caregiver to wounded troops in the makeshift hospitals here in Washington, the piece is a somber, extended orchestral song. Using a reduced orchestra, Adams focuses on static string sounds, featuring luminous violin solos from associate concertmaster Madeline Adkins (Jonathan Carney is away this week). Sanford Sylvan is not the most luscious baritone voice around, but he sang with clarity of text and great emotion.
Tim Smith, Composed and provocative (Baltimore Sun, October 4) Tim Smith, Adams conducts, invigorates (Baltimore Sun, October 6) Mark J. Estren, John Adams, Conducting Himself Admirably (Washington Post, October 6) |
The parade of living composers at the BSO continues in next week's concerts, with Tan Dun conducting his own music and a Russian program (at Strathmore on October 11 and in Baltimore on October 12 to 14). Tan Dun will speak to the audience in the Composers in Conversation series on Wednesday at the Meyerhoff (October 10, 7:30 pm).
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