John Adams in New York

We heard the world premiere of a new piece by John Adams entitled Scheherazade.2, a huge work for orchestra and violin, as played by the NY Philharmonic and violinist Leila Josefwicz, and conducted by Alan Gilbert.  Adams calls it a "Dramatic Symphony for Violin and Orchestra", and that it is, lasting about 40 minutes.   I was hugely impressed; it is an extraordinarily expressive piece, and overwhelming at times.   Josefwicz was fearsomely involved, playing from memory, with both intensity and precision;  I don't think I have ever heard that level of violin playing in my life.   The piece itself has a program, which might be briefly summarized as Scheherazade from a feminist perspective, Scheherazade as a woman who has been abused and brutalized by men.   Adams explained the scenario/program in detail in his genial manner before the piece, but I must confess that I have little use for programs of any kind, and soon forgot about it entirely.   It is, like most violin and orchestra pieces, a musical dialogue (very dramatic, in this case) between the violin and the orchestra.   The  enormous orchestra featured Adam's imaginative colors, using for example, a cimbalom (a very large hammered string instrument from Hungary) .   On first hearing, I think this is one of Adams' best pieces ever.  I would be eager to hear it again (as soon as I recover).

The first half of the program included a wonderful performance of the original score of Stravinsky's "Petrushka".   It is always a delight to hear Stravinsky's early music played with such energy and precise delineation; every detail of his ingenious orchestration shone  clearly.   I was struck this time by how mimetic the music is, despite Stravinsky's proclaimed aversion to such things.  You really can imagine the characters; and it almost resembles Hollywood's cartoon music at times.   And Stravinsky really does have a gift for such characterizations; I could imagine that he was certainly capable of making a career out of doing just that kind of music for the rest of his life.  Luckily, for us he didn't.

(The week before, I heard Gilbert and the Philharmonic do an energetic and beautifully calibrated performance of Debussy's "Jeux", along with Ravel's Piano Concerto, which sounded very Gershwinesque, and a big piece by Essa-Pekka Salonen, "Nyx".   Two consecutive programs of music from the 20th and 21st centuries.   Bravo!)

A few day earlier, we heard a concert at the Metropolitan Museum featuring the string quartet music of Adams, as played by the Attaca Quartet.   Because some of the works were from a collection of "John's Book of Alleged Dances", someone had the idea of commissioning a choreographer to create dances for them.   As it turns out, this was not a great idea.  The auditorium at the Met is not a good one for dance (the uncredited lighting was terrible), and the choreographer, Jessica Harper, did not really seem to be inspired by the music.   Only the last piece, choreographed to a very high energy performance of the second movement of Adam's "String Quartet" and featuring dancers from the Dance Theater of Harlem was interesting.   Though it was very odd to hear the very long and substantial first movement played without dance, and then to have the dancers come on for the second movement.    In any case, I don't think the string quartets are Adam's best music; I think he does better with orchestral colors and a more varied instrumentation.