He wraps nature in notes, composes symphonic landscapes, writes the music of the climate problem. American composer John Luther Adams clearly draws his inspiration from nature. From landscapes, snow plains, tundra, deserts and the ocean. 'Ostensibly silence reigns, but if you listen carefully, you hear sound constantly,' Adams himself says of it. Tonight Ralph van Raat, the specialist in newly written piano works, plays the Dutch premiere of Adam's Piano Concerto Prophecies of Stone.
"Ralph van Raat's playing combines powerful projection with a neo-Romantic sensibility, focusing on important details while rarely losing sight of the music's dynamic swell and sweep." -Gramophone
Lawrence Renes conductor
Ralph van Raat piano
One Minute Symphony
J.L. Adams Piano Concerto 'Prophecies of Stone' (Dutch premiere)
Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2
Prophecies of Stone was commissioned by the Residentie Orkest and Factory International.
“Our leading new-music foursome,” is simply and clearly how The New York Times describes the JACK Quartet. Through close collaboration with today’s most exciting and sought-after composers, JACK inspires and infuses new works with tremendous energy and riveting attention.
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS: “Rising” from Untouched;
Lines Made by Walking; and The Wind in High Places
The program will be performed without intermission.
Tippet Rise and the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation are delighted to participate in a special collaborative concert at Paula Cooper Gallery (534 West 21st St, New York) on Wednesday, October 18 at 6:00 PM EDT, in celebration of Mark di Suvero's exhibition Painting and Sculpture (through October 21).
Our friends the JACK Quartet will perform John Luther Adams’ Lines Made By Walking (String Quartet No. 5), a Tippet Rise commission which premiered at the art center in 2019. In addition, poet Jenny Xie will read several of her works, interwoven among the three movements of the Adams piece.
John Luther Adams, American composer and Pulitzer Prize winner in 2014, reimagines and recreates relationships with other human and non-human beings through music. With a unique sensitivity for capturing the beauty and majesty of landscapes and natural environments, Adams takes us through different sonic and poetic geographies, from the flow of rivers to the movements of the skies. With compositions that sometimes take your breath away and sometimes lull you into a warm and comforting melody, John Luther Adams was highlighted by The New Yorker as “one of the most original musical thinkers of the century”.
Under the invitation of BoCA, soloists from the Orchestra from Algarve perform three of his works for string quartet, in two concerts designed for Faro’s green spaces. The program includes the pieces “The Wind in High Places” (2011), “Canticles of the Sky” (2015) and “Three High Places (in memory of Gordon Wright)” (2007), Adams’ music, always haunted and fascinated by the dialectic between man and nature, echoes and blends with the city’s natural environment.
John Luther Adams, American composer and Pulitzer Prize winner in 2014, reimagines and recreates relationships with other human and non-human beings through music. With a unique sensitivity for capturing the beauty and majesty of landscapes and natural environments, Adams takes us through different sonic and poetic geographies, from the flow of rivers to the movements of the skies. With compositions that sometimes take your breath away and sometimes lull you into a warm and comforting melody, John Luther Adams was highlighted by The New Yorker as “one of the most original musical thinkers of the century”.
Under the invitation of BoCA, soloists from the Orchestra from Algarve perform three of his works for string quartet, in two concerts designed for Faro’s green spaces. The program includes the pieces “The Wind in High Places” (2011), “Canticles of the Sky” (2015) and “Three High Places (in memory of Gordon Wright)” (2007), Adams’ music, always haunted and fascinated by the dialectic between man and nature, echoes and blends with the city’s natural environment.
Elements - The Treske Quartet
Programme:
Plan and Elevation - Caroline Shaw
Wind in High Places - John Luther Adams
Ornitomaquia - Giuseppe Gallo-Balma
Enigma - Anna Thorvaldsdottir
First performed just a few weeks ago at the Aspen Music Festival and School on August 6. This new work, Crossing Open Ground, by John Luther Adams was co-commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Barry Lopez Foundation for Art & Environment. It will be played in Oberlin by members of the Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) and Oberlin Percussion Group (OPG) in Tappan Square. As they play, the musicians will gradually move across the space. CME is under the direction of conductor, Timothy Weiss. Ross Karre is the director of OPG.
The performance is about 75 minutes in length. In inclement weather, the performance will be postponed to Sunday, September 10 at 2:30pm in Tappan Square.
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS: An Atlas of Deep Time
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CHAUSSON: Poème, op. 25
DEBUSSY: La mer
Music inspired by geologic time and the sea bookend Chausson’s lush and sensuous Poème featuring Dorothy DeLay Prize Winner Hayoung Choi.
An Atlas of Deep Time by John Luther Adams was inspired by his “desire, amid the turbulence of human affairs, to hear the older, deeper resonances of the earth… Like the geologic layers of rocks beneath our feet, the densities and textures, the instrumental and harmonic colors are always changing, yet somehow the substance always seems to be the same… The earth is 4 billion 570 million years old. An Atlas of Deep Time lasts roughly 46 minutes, which equates to about 100 million years per minute. At that tempo, the entire history of the human family is represented in the dying reverberations of the last 25 milliseconds of this music.”
Ernst Chausson wasn’t a prolific composer, but his was the most distinctive voice in French music before the advent of the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel. The Poème for violin and orchestra was inspired by a short story by Turgenev, one of the composer’s favorite authors. Two friends, one a painter and one a musician, are in love with the same woman. When she chooses the painter, the rejected musician travels in the East, returning with a mysterious wine and an Indian violin he uses to play “the song of love happy and triumphant." And as you probably guessed, the woman falls for the musician. Chausson, a modest, gentle man whose works were sometimes abused and more often ignored, was astonished at the ovation at the work’s premiere and kept repeating, “I can’t get over it.”
La Mer, Debussy’s compelling and shimmering portrayal of the ocean, was inspired by childhood memories of the sea at Cannes, summers on the Normandy coast, a terrifying storm he experienced in a small fishing boat, Turner’s paintings, and Japanese seascape prints.
Discover the artistry of this year’s Dorothy DeLay Prize Winner in this varied program!
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS: An Atlas of Deep Time
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CHAUSSON: Poème, op. 25
DEBUSSY: La mer
See the orchestra’s musicians, conductor, choruses, and soloists work together on the afternoon's program.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conductor
Meigui Zhang Soprano
The Crossing
Donald Nally Artistic Director
J.L. Adams Vespers of the Blessed Earth
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky’s vivid reflection on ancient pagan rituals, still astounds more than a century after its riotous Parisian premiere. John Luther Adams’s Vespers of the Blessed Earth references humanity’s impact on the Earth. He told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “The music I’m writing now is an expression of grief and faith in the possibility of human redemption.” Philadelphia-based choral group The Crossing joins Yannick and the Orchestra, making its SPAC debut with this transformative performance.
Tickets are available from the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Box Office, by phone at 518.584.9330 (handling fees apply), or at spac.org/concerts-and-events/.
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS: There is no one, not even the wind
WYNTON MARSALIS: A Fiddler's Tale
AMFS artist-faculty, all top musicians from renowned orchestras, opera companies, and conservatories, come together to play their favorite chamber music works. Always a joyful and creative 75 minutes of music-making.
Co-commissioned by the AMFS, John Luther Adams's new work Crossing Open Ground will be played in an outdoor space in connection to the season theme, Adoration of the Earth. The work will be performed by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and as they play, the musicians will gradually move across the space.
NZSO proudly welcomes conductor André de Ridder for three nights of ground-breaking music. As a former student of legendary conductor Colin Davis, de Ridder has spread his wings wide to encompass the whole spectrum of music.
De Ridder brings his "energy, taste, and a discriminating ear for balance and timbre" (The Telegraph) to everything from operatic staples like Bluebeard's Castle or collaborative works with Damon Albarn from Gorillaz.
De Ridder will lead the NZSO in the Pulitzer-Prize-winning epic, Become Ocean, by John Luther Adams.
Inspired by the oceans of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, Luther Adams says of his undulating masterpiece:
as the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.
NZSO proudly welcomes conductor André de Ridder for three nights of ground-breaking music. As a former student of legendary conductor Colin Davis, de Ridder has spread his wings wide to encompass the whole spectrum of music.
De Ridder brings his "energy, taste, and a discriminating ear for balance and timbre" (The Telegraph) to everything from operatic staples like Bluebeard's Castle or collaborative works with Damon Albarn from Gorillaz.
De Ridder will lead the NZSO in the Pulitzer-Prize-winning epic, Become Ocean, by John Luther Adams.
Inspired by the oceans of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, Luther Adams says of his undulating masterpiece:
as the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.
New music inspired by the climate crisis. Lose yourself in a world premiere by John Luther Adams, played by pianist Ralph Van Raat alongside new commissions by Ailís Ní Ríain and Alissa Firsova, all performed by the BBC Philharmonic and conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni.
PROGRAM TO INCLUDE:
Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Takemitsu I hear the water dreaming
John Luther Adams Become Desert (New York Premiere–New York Philharmonic Co-Commission with the Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra).
Britten’s Four Sea Interludes depicts foreboding ocean moods and a vicious storm. Takemitsu’s I hear the water dreaming, featuring Principal Flute Robert Langevin as soloist, portrays the role of water in an Australian aboriginal myth. John Luther Adams’s Become Desert dramatizes one of the many consequences of human activity on our planet. The composer regards the work as “both a celebration of the deserts we are given, and a lamentation of the deserts we create.”
PROGRAM TO INCLUDE:
Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Takemitsu I hear the water dreaming
John Luther Adams Become Desert (New York Premiere–New York Philharmonic Co-Commission with the Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra).
Britten’s Four Sea Interludes depicts foreboding ocean moods and a vicious storm. Takemitsu’s I hear the water dreaming, featuring Principal Flute Robert Langevin as soloist, portrays the role of water in an Australian aboriginal myth. John Luther Adams’s Become Desert dramatizes one of the many consequences of human activity on our planet. The composer regards the work as “both a celebration of the deserts we are given, and a lamentation of the deserts we create.”
PROGRAM TO INCLUDE:
Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Takemitsu I hear the water dreaming
John Luther Adams Become Desert (New York Premiere–New York Philharmonic Co-Commission with the Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra).
Britten’s Four Sea Interludes depicts foreboding ocean moods and a vicious storm. Takemitsu’s I hear the water dreaming, featuring Principal Flute Robert Langevin as soloist, portrays the role of water in an Australian aboriginal myth. John Luther Adams’s Become Desert dramatizes one of the many consequences of human activity on our planet. The composer regards the work as “both a celebration of the deserts we are given, and a lamentation of the deserts we create.”
The Chelsea Symphony, in collaboration with composer Shuying Li, presents Li’s World Map concertos, featuring members of the Four Corners Ensemble in all new orchestrations of the concertos for chamber orchestra. Originally written for and recorded by the Four Corners Ensemble, each concerto journeys to a different country or region around the world, highlighting the diverse backgrounds of each featured musician. The evening opens with a new work by Aaron Dai and closes with John Luther Adams’s Become River, bringing the theme of world exploration together through the bodies of water that connect us all. PROGRAM Aaron Dai New Work (World Premiere) Shuying Li The Dryad (Version Premiere) Shuying Li American Variations (Version Premiere) Shuying Li The Peace House (Version Premiere) Shuying Li Matilda’s Dream (Version Premiere) Shuying Li Canton Snowstorm (Version Premiere) John Luther Adams Become River (NY Premiere)