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Album Savings: £6.07 compared to buying all songs
- Original Release Date: 7 Aug 2001
- Format - Music: MP3
- Compatible with MP3 Players (including with iPod®), iTunes, Windows Media Player
- Also available in CD Format
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
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.
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
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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