Lush landscapes, majestic motifs, shifting strings

CD Reviews

June 19, 2011|By Josh Shea, Globe Correspondent

FOUR THOUSAND HOLES John Luther Adams, composer (Cold Blue Music) There are at this moment, strange to say, two composers named John Adams writing significant contemporary classical music. John Coolidge Adams is much better known, as the composer of operas such as “Nixon in China’’ and “Doctor Atomic.’’ But the reputation of John Luther Adams has been building in recent years, as the lush, meditative music of this Alaska-based composer has begun traveling far from the western wilderness landscapes from which it draws its prime inspiration.

His recent piece, “Four Thousand Holes,’’ was in fact commissioned by the Boston-based pianist Stephen Drury, who will give its first performance on June 23 in Jordan Hall as part of this year’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice — better known by its nickname, “Sick Puppy.’’ In advance of that premiere the work has found its way onto a compelling new disc on the Cold Blue label, with Drury and percussionist Scott Deal. (Drury’s Callithumpian Consort takes on the disc’s second work “… and bells remembered …’’ from 2005.)

Despite a rather majestic climax, “Four Thousand Holes’’ unfolds at a measured pace, like a kind of contemplative walk in the woods in which the landscape changes slowly but dramatically over time. There is a spontaneous feel that belies the careful craftsmanship. Drury’s piano part is made up exclusively of chords based on major and minor triads, with Deal’s vibraphone and orchestra bells adding an extra sonic glitter. On top of it all, Adams generates a processed electronic “aura,’’ derived from the piano lines, and it spreads out like a canopy of sound: dense, rich, and enveloping.

DANIEL BARENBOIM PLAYS CHOPIN

The Warsaw Recital (Deutsche Grammophon) A remarkable thing happens at the end of this all-Chopin recital, given in Warsaw on the eve of the composer’s 200th birthday in February 2010. As an encore, Daniel Barenboim delivers a “Minute’’ Waltz in D flat major that is individual (note the articulated turns, or the sudden fortissimo in the middle), easy, and charming but with the right degree of masculine firmness. If there is a better version, by anyone, one hasn’t heard it.

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