Like Steve Reich and Philip Glass, John Adams has developed minimalism into a more expressive and versatile language than it promised in the 1970s, when pattern music was at its height but also at its most rigorous and severe. Judging from the works on this 2004 Naxos release, Adams has progressed from the limitations of static repetition, ...
The Naxos label diverges from its usual plain graphic design with this attempt to create the idea of an "alternative classical" genre, an idea that has paid big dividends when applied to rock and country music. Most of the selections are drawn from existing Naxos releases, with a few taken from discs by Denmark's Da Capo and Germany's CPO labels. ...
Adams' Harmonielehre -- or "Harmony Teachings" -- derives its title from Arnold Schoenberg's 1911 book of the same title. Far in technique from Schoenberg's 12-tone style, yet separating from the minimalist school of composition, "Harmonielehre" in its three movements shows Adams returning to some of his finer works of the past and bursting forth ...
John Adams is a crowd-pleasing composer and as such depends on the large audiences of orchestral music for the musical dialogues in which he engages. Solo piano music didn't have the same kind of public when it came out, at least in the classical realm, and Adams has not written a great deal of music for the piano. The four works presented here by ...
The two works on this album reflect the West Coast and Northeastern sides of John Adams' musical personality. He has fused the two tendencies with uncommon elegance over the years, but here he allows himself the latitude to pay more direct homage to several predecessors who influenced him. The Dharma at Big Sur is a concerto for electric six ...
Since minimalism is well-established as a major movement of the late twentieth century and widely practiced today, it may be surprising to find that John Adams' Grand Pianola (1982) ever provoked controversy. Yet its premiere riled the academic and avant-garde establishment, perhaps less for its explicit adoption of repetitive and additive ...
The program notes for this CD begin with a quote from British visual artist Michael Craig Martin: "Minimalism presents the viewer with objects of charged neutrality...objects that are without any hierarchy of interest...objects that reveal everything about themselves, but little about the artist." If that can be taken as an adequate definition of ...
This is an unusually sumptuous release for the Naxos label, with a fully designed sleeve bearing a sharp picture of young British soloist Chloë Hanslip placed over the usual Naxos template cover. The enhanced presentation is understandable, for the program is an unusually ambitious one -- it attempts to present an entirely fresh and crowd-pleasing ...
In BIS' Chinoiserie, pianist Jenny Lin brings one of the most compelling and relevant themed recitals to be heard on disc in years, a collection of pieces by Western composers that attempts to explore the subject of China in some regard, not only musically but culturally.It is said that bandleader Cab Calloway once upbraided a young trumpeter in ...
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
![New York Philharmonic: An American Celebration [Selections from the new 10 CD set]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/m35290w8ve7_t.jpg)
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide or All Movie Guide. © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide and All Movie Guide are registered Trademarks of All Media Guide, LLC.