People sometimes ask: Who is the Ludwig van Beethoven of our time? At least in the United States, the answer just might be John Adams.
It would be hard to reach any other conclusion after experiencing the Colorado Symphony’s electrifying performance Friday evening of Adams’ “Naive and Sentimental Music.”
As the smaller-than-usual audience made clear, it was a big risk for Jeffrey Kahane to program such a monumental new work during his first season as music director. Yet, artistically, it paid off in every way.
Quite simply, the 1999 symphony stands as a contemporary musical landmark. Powerful. All-encompassing. Utterly original. Gloriously of our time.
The first movement opens with what Adams describes as a naive, little melody venturing into the big world, and it grows ever more percussive, dense and complex, ending in a burst of clamorous wonderment.
Although this section has an intricate structure, there is no obvious sonata form, no clean, linear progression. Instead, it unfolds with a loose, almost liquidy feel, the listener immersed in a profound sea of sound.
What follows is one of the great slow movements in all classical music, an ethereal, other-worldly section marked with the shimmering sound of bows drawn across percussion instruments and climaxed with pulsing, radiant, bell-like chords.
Taking the lead is a single guitar, with a group of delicate solos evocatively performed by Masakazu Ito. After lingering with the guitar, the melody finally moves to the principal bassoon, with Chad Cognata offering a eloquent solo of his own.
Rounding out the work is the insistent, highly rhythmic third movement. Iterative patterns and barrages of notes all seemingly on the off beat appear on a collision course, yet everything fits together in a thunderous whole. Kahane and the orchestra delivered an intense, incisive and totally involved interpretation that spoke volumes about the symphony’s ever-improving quality and amazing rapport the conductor and musicians have achieved in just one season. Adams’ work completely overshadowed the orchestra’s first-half performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, with decidedly underwhelming solo work by emerging Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud.
Although certainly polished and technically adept, he has little in the way of a distinctive interpretative voice or emotional connection with the music.
