Amazon.co.uk Review
Century Rolls, like so many of John Adams' works, looks both ways from the musical present: the approach of a new century (it was written in 1997), and the distant recorded past evoked by piano rolls, especially their streamlining effect on great interpreters of the past. "First Movement" takes the process at face value, in the most overtly minimalist stretch of music Adams has written in years, now with a rhythmic and harmonic subtlety that keep you wondering just what's coming next. A long, tranquil coda leads into "Manny's Gym", a Satie-esque play on melody made for Emmanuel Ax, who commissioned the work. "Hail Bop" makes positive use of Adams' mis-hearing the name of the comet, giving zest to the rhythmic intricacies that power the concerto to its exhilarating close. Ax had clearly played the work in prior to recording, his mastery complemented by the Clevelanders' formidable precision.
Lollapalooza and
Slonimsky's Earbox, previously released in Nonesuch's 10-disc retrospective,
The John Adams Earbox, are welcome couplings, the latter sharing with the concerto an engrossing attention to detail that will more than repay repeated listenings. --
Richard Whitehouse
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£12.48
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