“Samuel Adams didn’t yet have specific ideas in mind when he began his three-year residency with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra two years ago,” writes David Polk on Friday (3/17) at Chicago radio station WFMT. “Rather, he developed them as he got to know members of the orchestra and music director Riccardo Muti. Eventually, he decided that he wanted to write something that would ‘explore every possible extreme of what this orchestra can do coloristically’ … as he wrote in the notes for his piece many words of love. Adams spoke more about his latest work after a rehearsal in Orchestra Hall the day of its world premiere on Thursday, March 16, 2017. What is this piece about? … The title comes from a fragment from Schubert’s ‘Der Lindenbaum,’ a song in Winterreise. I fell in love with it through a contemporary work by Carl Stone [who] has one piece, Shing Kee, which is based on two little fragments from a recording of Akiko Yano, the Japanese pop singer, singing ‘Der Lindenbaum’ in English. What defines success for you for a new work? I know this sounds very lofty and grand and silly [chuckles] but, I’m looking to create presence.”
Posted March 22, 2017
