Naxos
American Classics - Adams: Shaker Loops, Etc / Alsop, Gunn, Et Al
$19.99
Only 1 left
Details
- Composer
- ADAMS JOHN
- Artist
- Nathan, Marin, Gunn, Alsop
- Format
- CD
- Label
- Naxos
- Released
- Oct 19, 2004
- Catalog #
- 8559031
- UPC
- 636943903124
About
Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams—it is my prediction that, 50 years from now, it will be the last composer’s music that is played most frequently. I am not sure that Adams is the “best” composer of the three (frankly, Reich’s work is more interesting to me), but he is the one who has motivated the most performers to program and record his work. For example, apart from Alsop, three other conductors have recorded Short Ride (de Waart on Nonesuch, Rattle on EMI, and Mosko on Chandos), and there are alternative recordings on Nonesuch of the other three works as well. The Nonesuch discs are important documents, but not necessarily the last word. Despite their explicit or implicit approval by the composer, they can and will be bettered, as time goes on. Consider The Wound-Dresser. I remember being impressed by this work when Nonesuch released the CD with baritone Sanford Sylvan, and the composer conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s—I still was in graduate school, and various commentators were quick to draw parallels between Walt Whitman’s injured and dying boys and the current victims of the AIDS epidemic. There’s nothing wrong with Sylvan and Adams, but I find Gunn and Alsop more moving—almost too much so, as the text’s homoaffective subtext is moved closer to the foreground. (It strikes me now that the vocal line at “Many a soldier’s loving arms about this neck have cross’d and rested” could have been written by Stephen Sondheim.)
Alsop makes a good case for Short Ride and for the Berceuse élégiaque. The latter work is an arrangement for chamber orchestra of a work by Ferrucio Busoni—a fact that is not mentioned anywhere in Naxos’s documentation, shamefully enough. Adams, in his Nonesuch recording, is a little more weird and abrasive than Alsop in Shaker Loops—to good effect. All in all, the availability of the Nonesuch recordings does not make this Naxos release superfluous. Alsop is a fine conductor, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra plays well for her, and then there’s that Naxos price! If you’ve been curious about Adams’s music, but have not been willing to pay Nonesuch prices to hear it, here are four of Adams’s best works in competitive performances at a fraction of the cost.
Raymond Tuttle, FANFARE
Alsop makes a good case for Short Ride and for the Berceuse élégiaque. The latter work is an arrangement for chamber orchestra of a work by Ferrucio Busoni—a fact that is not mentioned anywhere in Naxos’s documentation, shamefully enough. Adams, in his Nonesuch recording, is a little more weird and abrasive than Alsop in Shaker Loops—to good effect. All in all, the availability of the Nonesuch recordings does not make this Naxos release superfluous. Alsop is a fine conductor, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra plays well for her, and then there’s that Naxos price! If you’ve been curious about Adams’s music, but have not been willing to pay Nonesuch prices to hear it, here are four of Adams’s best works in competitive performances at a fraction of the cost.
Raymond Tuttle, FANFARE
Tracklist 7 tracks
-
1 Short Ride in a Fast Machine 04:05
- Track
- 1
- Title
- Short Ride in a Fast Machine
- Duration
- 04:05
- Composer
- John Adams
- Ensemble
- Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Marin Alsop
-
2 The Wound-Dresser 19:19
- Track
- 2
- Title
- The Wound-Dresser
- Duration
- 19:19
- Composer
- John Adams
- Performer
- Nathan Gunn
- Conductor
- Marin Alsop
-
3 Berceuse elegiaque (arr. J. Adams) 09:27
- Track
- 3
- Title
- Berceuse elegiaque (arr. J. Adams)
- Duration
- 09:27
- Composer
- Ferruccio Busoni
- Conductor
- Marin Alsop
-
4 Shaking and Trembling 08:34
- Track
- 4
- Title
- Shaking and Trembling
- Duration
- 08:34
- Composer
- John Adams
- Ensemble
- Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Marin Alsop
-
5 Hymning Slews 05:32
- Track
- 5
- Title
- Hymning Slews
- Duration
- 05:32
- Composer
- John Adams
- Ensemble
- Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Marin Alsop
-
6 Loops and Verses 07:13
- Track
- 6
- Title
- Loops and Verses
- Duration
- 07:13
- Composer
- John Adams
- Ensemble
- Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Marin Alsop
-
7 A Final Shaking 04:09
- Track
- 7
- Title
- A Final Shaking
- Duration
- 04:09
- Composer
- John Adams
- Ensemble
- Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor
- Marin Alsop