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Review
El Niño has existed for less than a year, yet it feels like longer already. And while I know it's pretty pointless trying to predict which new works will still be getting public performances in twenty years time, I feel like sticking my neck out on this one. John Adams's nativity oratorio is a winner, a very palpable hit - an intelligent, emotional and sometimes magical re-telling of the old, old story from a new perspective. Adams wants us to experience the birth of the child from the mother's point of view, and realising that the traditional biblical texts couldn't possibly do this on their own, he's drawn on a wide variety of sources to engage our emotions: Hildegard of Bingen, poems by Hispanic women, even the Apocrypha and the Wakefield Mystery Plays.
Adams asks us to think about the miracle of birth afresh, and to help us he's devised one of his most rewarding scores. Those familiar Adams-isms are all there: the chugging chords, the motor-rhythms, the stammering vocal lines familiar from his operas...but there are references to Bach oratorio and Handel as well, and some of the most beautiful episodes I've heard in any of his music.
The recording was made during the original production run at the Châtelet Theatre in Paris, and you can tell the cast has the music in their bones. Dawn Upshaw brings a beautiful simplicity to Mary, Willard White is magnificent as the angry, baffled and then humbled Joseph, and the chorus of three counter-tenors is really effective. The performance gets the atmospheric recording it deserves, and shorn of the dizzying multimedia kaleidoscope that was the original Peter Sellar's production, El Niño emerges with a new radiance and beauty on record.
At a time when other major companies are putting yet more Messiah recordings on the Christmas market, Nonesuch should be thanked for offering such an eloquent alternative. For some people this will be the perfect Christmas present, a gift with real meaning. --Andrew McGregor
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By enthusiast
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD
Minimalism? Only really in its roots, I think. Adams seems to have had a need to go beyond minimalism to achieve big things and this is a substantial work in a traditional form that nevertheless manages to be contemporary - someone somewhere called it a Messiah for the 20th Century. I bought this years ago, found it most rewarding, enjoyable and memorable. I have returned to it often. I have tried other Adams pieces but none has impressed me as greatly as this. The performance is stunning - great singing and Nagano's excellent conducting ... and all sound totally committed to this work. I do recommend this.
By Mr. A. R. Boyes
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD
What does the term "minimalist" mean? I'll not attempt a long definition but I would expect a composer to attempt to achieve the maximum impact with the most basic materials. When put like that, John Adams El Nino is anything but. That is not a criticism however, it's just not fair to simply bracket his work with Glass and Reich, for example, even if their influence can be felt here in places. You'll also find very conscious traces Part and Gorecki in one or two places not to mention Bach, Handel and even Sibelius. John Adams takes his references from far and wide with disparate sources and binds them into a spellbinding whole.
His musical vocabulary expanded in Harmonielehre and El Nino with the lush almost late romantic tonality mixed with some dissonant spice. The mixing of the traditional nativity tale with more contemporary stories and the mix of english and spanish texts make this a very contemporary take on the original tale. No matter what the issues of style are, this is indeed a substantial oratorio piece in the manner of Handel's "Messiah". That it adds extra dramatic elements and fuses the ideas of Peter Sellers so completely with the music doesn't quite make it into an opera as some call it but it is enthralling nonetheless.
The singing from all three soloists plus the counter tenors is magnificent with so many memorable numbers in the work - some dramatic, some haunting and beguilling and some, particularly in the Spanish texts quite sensual. Not all John Adams's music hits the heights but this work is a great classic - no doubt about it. I've owned this for many years but writing about it now makes we want to go out and buy the dvd of it too. The performance I guess is definitive so this comes with the highest recommendation.
His musical vocabulary expanded in Harmonielehre and El Nino with the lush almost late romantic tonality mixed with some dissonant spice. The mixing of the traditional nativity tale with more contemporary stories and the mix of english and spanish texts make this a very contemporary take on the original tale. No matter what the issues of style are, this is indeed a substantial oratorio piece in the manner of Handel's "Messiah". That it adds extra dramatic elements and fuses the ideas of Peter Sellers so completely with the music doesn't quite make it into an opera as some call it but it is enthralling nonetheless.
The singing from all three soloists plus the counter tenors is magnificent with so many memorable numbers in the work - some dramatic, some haunting and beguilling and some, particularly in the Spanish texts quite sensual. Not all John Adams's music hits the heights but this work is a great classic - no doubt about it. I've owned this for many years but writing about it now makes we want to go out and buy the dvd of it too. The performance I guess is definitive so this comes with the highest recommendation.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. Warren M. Fisher
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
One of Adams finest works, and easily his best piece of musical theatre since 'Nixon In China', this is minimalism at its most evocative and ranks up with the best of Philip Glass. Dark, moving and utterly compelling, this is the perfect intro to Adams and a must for all fans of American Minimalism.
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