Adams Shaker Loops
Bristling energy to aching desolation: a bargain survey that has real impact
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: John Adams, Ferruccio (Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto) Busoni
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Naxos
Magazine Review Date: 11/2004
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 59
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: 8 559031
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Short Ride in a Fast Machine |
John Adams, Composer
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra John Adams, Composer Marin Alsop, Conductor |
(The) Wound-dresser |
John Adams, Composer
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra John Adams, Composer Marin Alsop, Conductor Nathan Gunn, Baritone |
Shaker Loops |
John Adams, Composer
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra John Adams, Composer Marin Alsop, Conductor |
Berceuse élégiaque |
Ferruccio (Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto) Busoni, Composer
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Ferruccio (Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto) Busoni, Composer Marin Alsop, Conductor |
Author: Andrew Farach-Colton
In Shaker Loops, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s strings sound rough at times – the Orchestra of St Luke’s play more luminously under the composer’s direction – but Marin Alsop paces the work with a sure hand and the performance bristles with energy. Orchestral playing is also occasionally coarse in The Wound-Dresser. The trumpet line beginning at 7’00” seems awkward, for example – though in such aching, desolate music, this isn’t necessarily a liability. Baritone Nathan Gunn intones Whitman’s words with a firm, almost plush, tone that conveys masculinity and maturity, and his diction is excellent; his approach to the text is somewhat generalised in intensity, however, especially when compared with Sanford Sylvan, who recorded the work with Adams, and whose detailed response makes Whitman seem a more genuinely wise and empathetic figure.
Alsop and the orchestra weave a delicate yet heady nocturnal atmosphere in Adams’s arrangement of Busoni’s Berceuse élégiaque, whose misty, dark harmonies sound surprisingly close to those in The Wound-Dresser, and put the pedal to the floor for Short Ride in a Fast Machine. All in all, this vividly recorded, inexpensive disc should make a compelling introduction to Adams’s music.
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