It could hardly be more appropriate to celebrate a composer named John Adams on Presidents Day.
No relation to our second president, Adams is considered by some to be America’s preeminent living composer. He emerged from the haze of minimalism to become the most versatile and substantial of early proponents of the style. In 2003, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his 9/11 memorial “On the Transmigration of Souls.”
Personally I’ve always been divided on Adams’ music. Some of it I find fun (“Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” “Grand Pianola Music”), some of it I find to be quite good (“Shaker Loops,” “El Niño”), some of it I find to be boring, clumsy, or downright embarrassing (“Harmonium,” for as much as I could stand of “Doctor Atomic”).
I concede that these are subjective evaluations. There’s no arguing against Adams’ influence or his standing. Happy birthday to John Adams on his 74th birthday, and congratulations on his long-term success.
“Shaker Loops” (1983):
Also born on this date was Christopher Rouse. Rouse was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for his Trombone Concerto in 1993. In 2002, his guitar concerto, “Concerto de Gaudi,” was recognized with a Grammy, in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition. He served as composer-in-residence with the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015, the year of his death at the age of 70. His music was quoted extensively in a 2017 documentary, “The Devil and Father Amorth,” by “The Exorcist” director William Friedkin.
Rouse’s Flute Concerto (1993) is dedicated to the memory of James Bulger, a toddler murdered by two ten year-old boys.
Finally, on this American holiday, I also wanted to acknowledge composer Stephen Albert, whose birthday anniversary I noticed on February 6, but didn’t get around to sharing news of it here.
Albert would have been 80 years-old this year. His Symphony No. 1, “RiverRun,” earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. Sadly, he was killed in an automobile accident seven years later. In 1995, a posthumous Grammy was awarded, for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, for Yo-Yo Ma’s recording of Albert’s Cello Concerto.
My favorite Albert piece also happens to be his last, the Symphony No. 2 (1992), commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. It doesn’t hurt that it reminds me of Sibelius and, at times, even John Williams. The orchestration was left incomplete at the time of Albert’s death, so it fell to Sebastian Currier to supply the finishing touches. It’s a beautiful, valedictory work, from a composer who, at 51, left us in his prime.
Interestingly, the slow movement of Rouse’s own Symphony No. 2 is dedicated to Albert’s memory.
All worthwhile music to enjoy on this Presidents Day.
Clockwise from left: John Adams, Christopher Rouse, and Stephen Albert (with Mstislav Rostropovich)
