John Adams: The Dharma at Big Sur/My Father Knew Charles Ives
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CD Details
Composer: John AdamsConductor: John Adams
Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra
Performer: Bill Houghton
Performer: Tracy Silverman
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-09-26
Music Label: Nonesuch
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- The Dharma At Big Sur: II. Sri Moonshine
- My Father Knew Charles Ives: I. Concord
- My Father Knew Charles Ives: II. The Lake
- My Father Knew Charles Ives: III. The Mountain
Music reviews of John Adams: The Dharma at Big Sur/My Father Knew Charles Ives
Music Review: "Dharma" a Masterpiece
Rating: 5 Stars
"The Dharma at Big Sur," a concerto for electric violin and orchestra, features the kind of post-minimalist style typical of John Adams' works, but is one of his more harmonically adventurous. The overall feel of the work is calm, but as it progresses in the second movement the dance-like revelries of the violin fly above an orchestral pulse and humming sonoroties that gradually intensify so much that by the end I'm always left breathless. This piece has turned out to be among my favorites of Adams' works.
"My Father Knew Charles Ives" is a piece that makes a good companion of Ives' "Three Places in New England." Adams pays homage to Ives, using inter alia Ives' technique of clashing melodies and the sounds of bands, but he also manages to take the work in his own direction. Compared to "Dharma," this is relatively darker and more introspective, with moments of its own intensity surrounded by quieter ruminations.
Description of John Adams: The Dharma at Big Sur/My Father Knew Charles Ives
Featuring two highly-acclaimed commissioned orchestral works, The Dharma At Big Sur and My Father Knew Charles Ives, performed by the BBC Sumphony with Adams himself conducting. While panoramic in scope, these multi-part pieces are also deeply personal in nature. Described as "autobiographical sound memories" by the BBC, they evoke the well-traveled American composer's east coast/west coast life and wide-ranging musical education.This is a splendid addition to the Adams discography, one that follows him from New England to California. Dharma at Big Sur is a concerto for electric violin. It begins by evoking the West's sun and easy living, but this is more than a musical piece of nature-painting. It rambles ambiently for a while before landing in an Indian raga, jazzy mode and ends with a type of heavenly good-naturedness. The electric violin is played by Tracy Silverman; a sixth string allows for the sonorous tones of the cello. The other work, presented on a second CD (so as to avoid culture shock?) is My Father knew Charles Ives, which, while apparently untrue, lets us know that Ives's New England sound and his wacky one-on-top-of-the-other methods will be found here, and, indeed, they are. It pays homage to some of Ives's music (the trumpet from his "The Unanswered Question" is clear here), but more than that, in its various sections ("The Lake;" "The Mountain") it evokes the nature of New England as picturesquely as Ives does, and parallels Adams's California in Dharma A pair of fascinating works, at times a bit thorny, but well worth it. --Robert Levine
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