...I did not feel disappointed. John Adam's Slonimsky's Earbox is a loud, frenetic ride using the full resources of the orchestra. It begins with a rapid upward run that is a kind of leitmotif. Vänskä made sure that the orchestra kept up a tense level of energy. Mr. Adams himself was in attendance in box A for the entire evening & took a bow on stage after his piece.
For the record, the lack of disappointment was due to the fine conducting of Osmo Vänskä. Also for the record, I just did a copy/paste of the conductor's name.
The composer on earbox.com:
The new piece seems in retrospect to have pointed toward a successful integration of the older minimalist techniques (repetitive motifs, steady background pulse and stable harmonic areas) the more complex, more actively contrapuntal language of the post-Klinghoffer pieces.
More "for the record": I still don't understand how to use copy/paste after several months with an iPhone. Also, I just admitted to the local spouse that I still miss the phone from my old Palm Treo (as I explained why I hadn't called her back). Browsing and apps were a disaster, though.
Off the record, this is not a favorite John Adams piece...
For the record, Slonimsky's Earbox isn't even my favorite piece on the Century Rolls/Lollapalooza/Slonimsky's Earbox CD. That honor would go to Lollapalooza.
Posted by: Kyle L | October 24, 2009 at 03:11 PM