The first recording of John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony was released on Nonesuch earlier this year, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, paired with his String Quartet, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. The Boston Globe says the former piece "has a madcap wit, an infectious rhythmic energy and vitality, and a beautifully wrought slow movement." The Detroit Free Press gives the album a perfect four stars, calling the latter piece "a major addition to the repertoire." The New Haven Advocate says it's "a first recording that seems likely to remain the benchmark."
The first recording of John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony was released earlier this year on Nonesuch, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), led by the composer. It is paired on the album with the first recording of his String Quartet, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the ensemble for which the piece was written.
The Boston Globe's Jeremy Eichler says that Adams's 2007 Son of Chamber Symphony, the successor to his Chamber Symphony (1992), "has a madcap wit, an infectious rhythmic energy and vitality, and a beautifully wrought slow movement, all of it given an expert reading by the International Contemporary Ensemble under the composer's direction."
The String Quartet, Adams’s second full-sized work for that combination of instruments, after 1994’s John’s Book of Alleged Dances, is performed on the new album "with absolute authority and conviction" by the St. Lawrence, says Eichler, who calls it "visceral, dark-hued, and fiercely expressive music marked by some of his older characteristic gestures—minimalist memories, if you will—compressed with a kind of febrile Romantic intensity."
Read the complete review at boston.com.
---
The Detroit Free Press gives the album a perfect four stars.
"The St. Lawrence String Quartet's dynamic performance of John Adams' String Quartet in Ann Arbor in 2009 left the strong impression that this alluring and ambitious 30-minute work was a major addition to the repertoire," writes Free Press music critic Mark Stryker. "The St. Lawrence quartet's newly issued first recording of the piece seals the deal."
Stryker contends that, while the piece is "squarely in the grand quartet tradition," there is no stuffiness here. "The pleasure principle reigns. Sunlit color, impressionist harmony, sensual melody and shimmering textures create a seductive mood; the opening passages suggest Adams is having his Ravel moment. On another level, an engaging rhythmic pop dances to an unmistakably American beat."
Read the complete four-star album review at freep.com.
---
The New Haven Advocate's Daniel Stephen Johnson recently described the String Quartet as "a serious entry into the august genre, and as such it is impeccably written—how is so much going on between only four musicians? As with the Chamber Symphony, impeccably performed by crack new-music ensemble ICE, the St. Lawrence String Quartet gives the John Adams String Quartet a first recording that seems likely to remain the benchmark."
(In the same review, Johnson calls Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's recent Nonesuch debut album, Grá agus Bás, featuring the Crash Ensemble and singers Iarla O'Lionáird and Dawn Upshaw, "absolutely a revelation.")
Read the review at newhavenadvocate.com.
---
To pick up a copy of John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony / String Quartet album, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout.
- Log in to post comments
