John Adams. Photo source: Los Angeles Philharmonic.
In last Friday’s (1/30) Classical Voice America, Richard S. Ginell writes, “We have yet to definitively place John Adams within the contours of American music, especially since he is still active in the field. But that didn’t stop the composer-conductor … from providing some perspectives of his own at Disney Hall on Jan. 25 as a guest conductor (and longtime creative chair) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Adams [paired] his latest piano concerto, After the Fall, with works by … Charles Ives, Roy Harris, and Aaron Copland…. This was savvy, stimulating programming … After the Fall received its world premiere in January 2025 by the San Francisco Symphony with David Robertson conducting … For its downstate premiere, the composer was on the podium … with the dedicatee, Vikingur Ólafsson, returning to the keyboard…. The LA Phil performance was prefaced by … Ives’ ever mysterious, ever eloquently enigmatic The Unanswered Question … On to After the Fall, whose introduction sparkled more seductively and with greater detail … in the Disney Hall acoustic. Adams gave his nearly half-hour, single-movement concerto a slightly faster pace and a bit more choppy agitation … thoroughly in touch with his characteristic grooves, while drawing out the sudden slow fade at the close quite effectively. Ólafsson revealed an even more refined, crystalline touch.”
