The Chairman Dances

This is my favourite John Adams c.d (actually it's in my top ten classical c.d's). The stand out tracks are the 'chairman dances' which is fast tempo and modern - evoking the 'Nixon in China' opera in one piece of music. The other stand out track is the mellow, 'Christian Zeal and Activity' which has a fundamentalist preacher repeating line from the Gospel about the man with the withered arm picking up his mat and being healed. It just has this peaceful feeling waving over one's body, like seeing Mark Rothko's installation at the Tate Modern. If you like John Adams your like this c.d.

This was my first John Adams purchase and it still compares well with the best. It's a similar compilation to that on EMI by Simon Rattle and the CBSO. The great selling point of that recording was the minimalism meets late Romanticism of Harmonielehre. This Edo de Waart recording also includes the self same "The Chairman Dances" and two fanfares but its other pieces are the real attraction.

"Christian Zeal and Activity" sounds nostalgic and reassuring with an archaic tonality but the introduction of the preacher recording on a repeating loop is very unsettling. He sounds hectoring and alien to English ears but there remains a suspicion, with the static and contemplative music, that this is not the way it is perceived in the US. Nostalgia and national pride lurk in the music but the hectoring tone from the preacher is clearly meant to grate. This sounds like a work calculated to unsettle. It is essentially a fine piece of theatrical writing. Written early in Adams career it gives a clue to his future development as an operatic composer.

For me, "Common Tones In Simple Time" is already something of a neglected masterpiece of minimalism. The title tells you what the work's ground rules are but does nothing to prepare for this constantly changing, pulsing and varied landscape. No melody is allowed to take hold but the music can be seen as a constant movement over a changing and radiant landscape or the pulsing essence of life itself - the blood pumping through your veins. At about twenty minutes you could view it as a short symphony. You could further argue that "Harmonielehre" and "Naive and Sentimental music" are his second and third symphonies carrying a great deal of post modern baggage. The effect of "Common Tones" is a cleansing, relaxing and highly stimulating at the same time. I can't think of another work quite like it. Again, the making of a constantly changing landscape with such liimted materials gives clues to his abilities as a dramatic composer.

"The Chairman Dances" is a well known piece adapted from his opera, "Nixon in China". the part of the opera it comes from is quite downbeat but this adaptation transforms the music into a big orchestral showpiece with plenty of glitz and schmaltz. Ravel's dance works are never far away but this fox trot never sounds anything other than a big boned American work.

The two fanfares offer the constrast of contemplation and frenetic activity. the "Short ride in A Fast Machine" thumps an obsessive beat as the music hurtles along at great speed but often with bumps and sways along the way. This fanfare sounds like a preparation for his more substantial work "Fearful Symmetries", which sounds like a rickety old Lada being pushed along at the highest speed it can manage with the some startling gear changes.

"Trombona Lontana" provides a more distant contemplative mood with repeted distant trumpet fnafares. there si a hint of menace too int his music.

As it was for me, this would be a great introduction for anyone to John Adam's music. The playing and recording is excellent too. If you have most of these pieces already it is worth grabbing for the classic rarity that is "Common Tones..". Highly recommended.

This recording was bought really to listen to and study the Foxtrot. I have listened once to the other dances which are very well interpreted, but the Foxtrot is certainly a very exciting and at the same time, sensitive performance.