John Adams's 1985 piece The Chairman Dances is this week's selection for The NPR Classical 50, a series naming 50 essential recordings for everyone from first-time listeners to fanatics. "The idea here is that a foxtrot is being danced, but there's more than just the dance-like quality of the music that we hear," says critic Ted Libbey. "I find it very rich that Adams can pull all of these elements all together, and that you can hear this wonderful, exuberant and lush melody come out of this texture. It shows his ability to bring disparate pieces together in a way that does say something."
John Adams's The Chairman Dances, his 1985 "foxtrot for orchestra" and a thematic precursor to his first opera, Nixon in China, is this week's selection for The NPR Classical 50, critic Ted Libbey and host Fred Child's series of recommendations naming 50 essential recordings for everyone from first-time listeners to fanatics.
The Chairman Dances was first performed by the Milwaukee Symphony in January 1986 led by the late composer/conductor Lukas Foss, and received its first recording later that year on Nonesuch by the San Francisco Symphony under Edo de Waart. With The Chairman Dances as the titular piece, the album also includes Adams's Two Fanfares for Orchestra, Tromba lontana and Short Ride in a Fast Machine; Christian Zeal and Activity; and Common Tones in Simple Time.
"The idea here is that a foxtrot is being danced, but there's more than just the dance-like quality of the music that we hear," says Libbey of the lead piece. "There's also a very strong allusion to the swooning romanticism of Hollywood in this music."
He concludes:
I find it very rich that Adams can pull all of these elements all together, and that you can hear this wonderful, exuberant and lush melody come out of this texture ... It shows his ability to bring disparate pieces together in a way that does say something.
Listen to this week's episode of NPR Classical 50 at npr.org.
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