Adams' Apple-Cart (John Coolidge, that is!)

[Mirror Image]

A very negative review of the new Chandos Harmonielehre from Andrew Clements today:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/14/adams-harmonielehre-doctor-atomic-symphony-review

In my mind, there are three great Harmonielehre performances: MTT/SFSO, Rattle/CBSO, and Waart/SFSO. This new recording on Chandos hasn't interested me in the slightest. Maybe a lot of it has to do with the fact that from what I've heard of Oundjian hasn't impressed me whatsoever. Not only that but there are many other works in Adams' oeuvre that deserve some attention in terms of recordings like Harmonium for example, which only has two recordings if I'm not mistaken (Waart/ECM and Adams/Nonesuch).

[EigenUser]

In my mind, there are three great Harmonielehre performances: MTT/SFSO, Rattle/CBSO, and Waart/SFSO. This new recording on Chandos hasn't interested me in the slightest. Maybe a lot of it has to do with the fact that from what I've heard of Oundjian hasn't impressed me whatsoever. Not only that but there are many other works in Adams' oeuvre that deserve some attention in terms of recordings like Harmonium for example, which only has two recordings if I'm not mistaken (Waart/ECM and Adams/Nonesuch).

I like Adams, though he isn't a favorite of mine. As for lesser-known works of his, are you familiar with his hilarious clarinet concerto "Gnarly Buttons"? Somehow, I expect that you wouldn't like it, though I obviously have no idea. I played this in my university's orchestra a while back. It was a b**** to piece together as an ensemble, but great fun, nonetheless. Seriously though, Adams couldn't just write a simple quarter note. He just had to be a little off-beat (pun intended) and write things like a 32nd rest (on beat one of a measure) followed by a dotted sixteenth.

[asin]B000006E4G[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

I like Adams, though he isn't a favorite of mine. As for lesser-known works of his, are you familiar with his hilarious clarinet concerto "Gnarly Buttons"? Somehow, I expect that you wouldn't like it, though I obviously have no idea. I played this in my university's orchestra a while back. It was a b**** to piece together as an ensemble, but great fun, nonetheless. Seriously though, Adams couldn't just write a simple quarter note. He just had to be a little off-beat (pun intended) and write things like a 32nd rest (on beat one of a measure) followed by a dotted sixteenth.

[asin]B000006E4G[/asin]

Yep, Gnarly Buttons is great fun indeed. I like that work a lot. I've heard Adams can be difficult to perform, but many of the musicians I've read about in either interviews or articles said his music is fun to perform.

[Ken B]

In my mind, there are three great Harmonielehre performances: MTT/SFSO, Rattle/CBSO, and Waart/SFSO. This new recording on Chandos hasn't interested me in the slightest. Maybe a lot of it has to do with the fact that from what I've heard of Oundjian hasn't impressed me whatsoever. Not only that but there are many other works in Adams' oeuvre that deserve some attention in terms of recordings like Harmonium for example, which only has two recordings if I'm not mistaken (Waart/ECM and Adams/Nonesuch).

I was surprised when Oundjian got the Toronto Symphony. Because he's Canadian of course. But we've had Ozawa, Andrew Davis, Ancerl, Saraste as music directors.

[Mirror Image]

I was surprised when Oundjian got the Toronto Symphony. Because he's Canadian of course. But we've had Ozawa, Andrew Davis, Ancerl, Saraste as music directors.

A question: it says you live in the United States on your profile but you used to live in Canada?

[Ken B]

A question: it says you live in the United States on your profile but you used to live in Canada?

Yes. I am Canadian but live down here. In Michigan now. Formerly Kentucky, and a bit in Georgia and Ohio. Travel to Toronto regularly.

[Mirror Image]

Yes. I am Canadian but live down here. In Michigan now. Formerly Kentucky, and a bit in Georgia and Ohio. Travel to Toronto regularly.

Without getting into a whole discussion with you about the differences between the two countries (and derailing this thread even further), I love Canada and hope to visit and perhaps even live there one day.

[Karl Henning]

I need to revisit Naïve and Sentimental Music (no idea, now, of why it "didn't do it for me" back when I initially heard it);  and it is probably time I tried El Dorado.

I like Adams, though he isn't a favorite of mine.

Ditto.

[not edward]

I need to revisit Naïve and Sentimental Music (no idea, now, of why it "didn't do it for me" back when I initially heard it);  and it is probably time I tried El Dorado.

Ditto.

Perhaps the electric guitar part in the slow movement? I find it very unfortunate.

I need to revisit El Dorado as well. It's an interesting inversion of conventional dramatic direction.

[Karl Henning]

Perhaps the electric guitar part in the slow movement? I find it very unfortunate.

I remember it from that first outing rather harshly.  I shouldn't say I like it now, but I think I've compensated by "listening around it."  Will give it another go soon.

[Karl Henning]

Perhaps the electric guitar part in the slow movement? I find it very unfortunate.

I need to revisit El Dorado as well. It's an interesting inversion of conventional dramatic direction.

Viz. the Naïve and Sentimental Music . . . I don't say I could make any case for anyone else, but I find that I don't mind the guitar in the second movement.  Perhaps . . . well, I don't remember losing patience with the first movement, or certainly do not remember losing patience with it so early.  It starts off well enough . . . I'll stop there.

As a result, the open of the second movement comes almost as mere relief.  It is better than that, it is good writing (though, as with the first movement, I could hear someone saying it starts off well enough . . . .)

I've now read the liner notes.  The writer actually used Adamsian.

More than once.

[EigenUser]

Viz. the Naïve and Sentimental Music . . . I don't say I could make any case for anyone else, but I find that I don't mind the guitar in the second movement.  Perhaps . . . well, I don't remember losing patience with the first movement, or certainly do not remember losing patience with it so early.  It starts off well enough . . . I'll stop there.

As a result, the open of the second movement comes almost as mere relief.  It is better than that, it is good writing (though, as with the first movement, I could hear someone saying it starts off well enough . . . .)

I've now read the liner notes.  The writer actually used Adamsian.

More than once.

Adamsian?  Really??

You're a clarinettist. Have you heard GB? What do you think of it?

[snyprrr]

A very negative review of the new Chandos Harmonielehre from Andrew Clements today:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/14/adams-harmonielehre-doctor-atomic-symphony-review

So, how bout that Nonesuch 'Noir' and sax Concerto?  I have heartily resisted JCA this long; will this new release win hearts and minds?

[Karl Henning]

Some coins do not have two sides. And what was done to Leon Klinghoffer has no other side.

Letters to the Editor of The New York Times

The Opinion Pages | LETTERS

'Klinghoffer': An Opera and a Protest
SEPT. 22, 2014

To the Editor:

Re "The Met Opera Stands Firm" (editorial, Sept. 20):

In joining protesters of the New York Metropolitan Opera's production of "The Death of Klinghoffer," I echo the silenced voice of our son, Daniel Pearl, and the silenced voices of other victims of terror who were murdered, maimed or left heartbroken by the new menace of our generation, a savagery that the Met has decided to elevate to a normative, two-sided status worthy of artistic expression.

We are told that the composer tried to understand the hijackers, their motivations and their grievances.

I submit that there has never been a crime in human history lacking grievance and motivation. The 9/11 lunatics had profound motivations, and the murderers of our son, Daniel Pearl, had very compelling "grievances."

In the last few weeks we have seen with our own eyes that Hamas and the Islamic State have grievances, too. There is nothing more enticing to a would-be terrorist than the prospect of broadcasting his "grievances" in Lincoln Center, the icon of American culture.

Yet civilized society has learned to protect itself by codifying right from wrong, separating the holy from the profane, distinguishing that which deserves the sound of orchestras from that which commands our unconditional revulsion. The Met has trashed this distinction and thus betrayed its contract with society.

I submit that choreographing a "nuanced" operatic drama around criminal pathology is not an artistic prerogative, but a blatant betrayal of public trust. We do not stage "nuanced" operas for rapists and child molesters, and we do not compose symphonies for penetrating the minds of ISIS executioners.

Some coins do not have two sides. And what was done to Leon Klinghoffer has no other side.

What we are seeing in New York is not an artistic expression that challenges the limits of morality but a moral deformity that challenges the limits of the art.

This opera is not about the mentality of deranged terrorists, but about the judgment of our arts directors. The Metropolitan Opera has squandered humanity's greatest treasure: our moral compass, our sense of right and wrong, and, most sadly, our reverence for music as a noble expression of the human spirit.

We might someday be able to forgive the Met for decriminalizing brutality, but we will never forgive it for poisoning our music, for turning our best violins and our iconic concert halls into megaphones for excusing evil.

JUDEA PEARL
President, Daniel Pearl Foundation
Los Angeles, Sept. 21, 2014


A version of this letter was read at the protest at the Met on Monday.

To the Editor:

You say the Metropolitan Opera's presentation of "The Death of Klinghoffer" is "moving and nuanced" and an assertion of "artistic freedom." The Met's right to present this opera is not in question, but its wisdom in doing so should be.

Even the title is misleading. Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly, wheelchair-bound American, did not simply die. In 1985, he was murdered, as a Jew, by Palestinian terrorists while on a cruise ship. Moreover, the composer, John Adams, was blunt in revealing his own outlook when he complained in his autobiography, "Hallelujah Junction," that "Israeli behavior on the world stage is off-limits to criticism." But Israel was not even directly linked to the actual story as it unfolded.

Moreover, in a world rife with gruesome terrorism — from Al Qaeda to the Islamic State, from Hamas to Boko Haram — what exactly is it about the outlook of anti-American, anti-Western and anti-Semitic murderers that evokes artistic notions worthy of one of the world's most prestigious stages?

In this spirit, should we expect Mr. Adams to prepare sequels for the Met, including "The Deaths of James Foley and Steven Sotloff" (not, alas, "The Beheadings")? The possibilities for giving "voice to all sides" is endless, if, that is, one is prepared to abandon any semblance of decency.

DAVID HARRIS
Executive Director
American Jewish Committee
New York, Sept. 20, 2014

[Karl Henning]

I want to think the best of Mr Adams.  But in this project, he was either disingenuous, or profoundly tone-deaf.

I want to think the best of the Met, but playing the "this is a work of geeenius" card is a moral evasion.

[Ken B]

I want to think the best of Mr Adams.  But in this project, he was either disingenuous, or profoundly tone-deaf.

I bought this opera when it was first released on vinyl, the first day it was available. My reaction was pretty close to David Harris's, but with more disappointment and rancor. Nothing I have seen since then has changed my opinion of Adams as a person, except possibly to confirm or lower it.

The notion that criticism of Israel is "off-limits" is more than disingenuous. Just last year at the UN there were 4 resolutions total against every nation except Israel. There were 23 against Israel.

IMO Karl, thinking the best of Adams is wasted effort.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I want to think the best of Mr Adams.  But in this project, he was either disingenuous, or profoundly tone-deaf.

I don't know this opera, but my impression from it and other of Adams' vocal works is that politically, he's a standard-issue Bay Area lefty. That may be good or bad depending on your POV; but such people tend to be predictable and boring when they express themselves via political art.

Luckily, this doesn't seem to have impinged on his orchestral works.

[not edward]

I don't know this opera, but my impression from it and other of Adams' vocal works is that politically, he's a standard-issue Bay Area lefty. That may be good or bad depending on your POV; but such people tend to be predictable and boring when they express themselves via political art.

Luckily, this doesn't seem to have impinged on his orchestral works.

There was some CD where he writes on the inlay of his pride that the first vote he cast was for Gene McCarthy in the '68 Democratic primaries. He also criticized Carter (Elliott, not Jimmy) for only writing vocal music to words by white poets. So yes, a standard-issue Bay Area lefty sounds about right.

I haven't ever heard the full Klinghoffer, but what I've read and heard doesn't incline me to the view that he was being disingenuous in the work. One example: the Chorus of the Exiled Palestinians and the Chorus of the Exiled Jews in the recording I have are the same length, down to the second. I'm sure this was intended as some kind of statement about historical injustices--whether it comes across as such is another matter.

[Mirror Image]

This is generally the problem I have with Adams when it comes to his operas. They're too political and declamatory. I like some of his orchestral music, but he's certainly started losing a lot steam the last couple of years. I think he's pretty much a parody of himself at this point.

[Ken B]

This is generally the problem I have with Adams when it comes to his operas. They're too political and declamatory. I like some of his orchestral music, but he's certainly started losing a lot steam the last couple of years. I think he's pretty much a parody of himself at this point.

+1

Although Nixon is my favorite Adams, but purely for the music. I ignore the alleged drama entirely.