Overture Magazine: 2017-2018 Season September-October 2017 | Page 14

TCHAIKOVSKY THRILL RIDE
About the Concert
SHORT RIDE IN A FAST MACHINE (1986)
LOLA MONTEZ DOES THE SPIDER DANCE (2016)
John Adams
Born in Worcester, MA, February 15, 1947;
now living in Berkeley, CA
The BSO’s 2017– 2018 season opens
with a performance of two short,
but extremely potent works by John
Adams that symbolize Marin Alsop’s
close connection with this formidable
American creative voice.
By the midpoint of the 20 th
century, the twelve-tone serial system
developed by Arnold Schoenberg held
classical music in a stranglehold of
musical complexity that alienated
many audience members. As a
music student at Harvard University
during the 1960s, Adams devoted
his classroom work to serialism, but
spent his free time listening to rock
and Big Band jazz. When he moved
to California in the early 1970s, he
discovered the Minimalist style of
American composers Steve Reich and
Philip Glass and began to see
an appealing possibility for himself
as a composer.
Minimalism was a reaction to
serialism. It sought to radically reduce
musical complexity by returning to
clear keys, simple harmonies and
plentiful repetition of melodies,
chords and rhythms, all of which were
banned in serialism. It emphasized
shimmering instrumental colors
CONCERTS THAT
EXHILARATE
SUNDAYS @ 5:30PM
SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
JEREMY DENK, PIANO
Oct 29*
TETZLAFF QUARTET
Nov 19*
JANINE JANSEN, VIOLIN
ALEXANDER GAVRYLYUK, PIANO
TORLEIF THEDÉEN, CELLO
Dec 10*
BORROMEO STRING QUARTET
BENJAMIN HOCHMAN, PIANO
Jan 28
PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD,
PIANO
Mar 11
ERIC OWENS, BASS-BARITONE
MYRA HUANG, PIANO
Mar 25
TRULS MØRK, CELLO
BEHZOD ABDURAIMOV, PIANO
May 6
DIRECTOR, FORTEPIANO
May 20
* The Oct 29, Nov 19, and
Dec 10 concerts will be
held at Baltimore Hebrew
Congregation in Pikesville.
The other concerts will be
held at Shriver Hall.
EXPLORE THE FULL SEASON!
SHRIVERCONCERTS.ORG
410.516.7164
12
OV E R T U R E / BSOmusic.org
FREIBURG BAROQUE
ORCHESTRA
KRISTIAN BEZUIDENHOUT,
John Adams
and hypnotic, slowly shifting rhythms
to produce music that was both
contemplative and easy on the ears.
Written in 1986, Short Ride in a Fast
Machine is minimalism on amphetamines.
Over a click track of woodblock and
other percussion augmented by strings
and woodwinds, the brass and drums
take us on a joyride of propulsive rhythms
borrowed from Big Band jazz. It’s over
in just four minutes, but, while it lasts,
Short Ride is perhaps the most exhilarating
experience in late-20 th -century music.
Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance
was commissioned and premiered in 2016
by the members of the Cabrillo Festival
Orchestra to salute Maestra Alsop’s 25
years as Music Director of that acclaimed
new music festival. The piece introduces
us to the BSO’s theme of the connection
between storytelling and music.
Minimalism has now faded as an
influence on Lola, but Adams’ love
of Big Band sounds still haunts its
strikingly original orchestration,
emphasizing brass and woodwind
instruments. Early in the piece, solo
trombone plays the role of the carnival
barker announcing Lola’s entrance.
And throughout, clarinets— Adams’
own instrument — are very prominent,
especially the squeaky E-flat clarinet.
As John Adams explains, “The Irish-
born actress and dancer Eliza Gilbert
(1821–1861) achieved international fame
under the name of ‘Lola Montez, the
Spanish Dancer.’ After a controversial
career on the continent, including a
sojourn in Bavaria, where she became
the lover and political advisor to King
Ludwig, she returned to London, where
she eloped with and married the very
young son of an aristocratic family. The
family, scandalized by the relationship,
sued her for bigamy, and she was forced
to flee to the United States, eventually
ending up in the Sierra foothills,
performing for audiences of gold miners.
This description of her famous ‘Spider
Dance,’ appeared in the San Francisco
Whig, June 3, 1853:
“‘Up went the curtain, and on came
Lola, fermenting the pit, agitating the