The performances of works by John Adams have not only thrilled the media. Some of them have been immortalised on a CD.
After recordings of Messiaen and Tchaikovsky, we turned to the music of John Adams together with Paavo Järvi in spring 2022, also to celebrate the 75th birthday of the American composer. Adams was a focal point in our programmes; he presented his cosmos as a composer, as a creative thinker and as a conductor. With his presence and participation, he lent the recording project and the performances a particularly "infectious enthusiasm", as music critic Norman Lebrecht put it.
«The Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich 2022 celebration of my music was a memorable event for me,» wrote Adams of his visit to Zürich. «It is a superb orchestra with great flexibility in terms of style and execution, and perhaps because the personnel comprises such an international combination of players, they had no trouble finding the essence of my very American musical language. I enjoyed conducting them several of my large works, and I enjoyed even more the opportunity to collaborate with Paavo Järvi, a consummate conductor and an artist of great sympathies for many types of music. His performances, captured on this new recording, are both deeply understanding of the music as well as brilliant in sound.»
The new album presents work from Adams’ various creative periods and with a variety of autobiographical or typically American references. Tromba Lontana (1986) is a fanfare written in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Texas’s declaration of independence from Mexico; Lollapaolooza (1995) was a birthday present to Simon Rattle; Slonimsky’s Earbox (1996) a tribute to his friend, the Russian-American composer, critic and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky; and My Father knew Charles Ives (2003) is a musical autobiography and homage to the early 20th-century American composer, who has been one of Adams’s major musical influences.
Regardless of the political, autobiographical or contemporary background of Adams’ works, it is ultimately the humanity that produces his music: «I know I have some very good new friends in Zurich now,» he writes to us. We have one across the Atlantic.
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
Paavo Järvi
John Adams
- Slonimsky’s Earbox
- Tromba Lontana
- Lollapalooza
- My Father Knew Charles Ives
54 Min.
Available from 2 September 2022
