Ensemble Modern; Hermann Kretzschmar, piano; Sian Edwards, conductor. RCA Victor Red Seal/BMG Classics 09026 68674-2.
This generously filled collection traces John Adams’s development from the comparatively austere Minimalism of the late 1970s to the manic stylistic collisions of the Chamber Symphony. The three works cover roughly fifteen years, but the distance between them seems greater. Phrygian Gates and Shaker Loops establish the repetitive processes from which Adams’s language emerged; the Chamber Symphony gleefully dismantles any suggestion that he remained a conventional Minimalist.
The principal attraction is the original 1978 version of Shaker Loops for string septet. The later string-orchestra arrangement gives the music greater weight and warmth, but the seven-player scoring exposes its nervous system. Every tremolo, repeated figure and change of pulse can be heard with remarkable clarity. Ensemble Modern plays the work with crisp articulation and tremendous concentration, while Sian Edwards keeps its overlapping patterns moving without making them sound mechanical.
“Shaking and Trembling” begins in a state of suppressed agitation, its rapid oscillations gradually gathering force. In “Hymning Slews,” the music relaxes into long, slowly bending lines, although the underlying movement never entirely disappears. “Loops and Verses” restores a more lyrical character before pushing toward the work’s emotional high point, and “A Final Shaking” brings everything to a compressed, urgent conclusion. The performance sacrifices little of the orchestral version’s power while revealing considerably more of the internal construction.
Phrygian Gates, written in 1977, is the most demanding work on the disc for both performer and listener. Its title refers to the changing modes through which the music passes, but Adams makes the process feel less like a theoretical exercise than a vast harmonic journey. Waves of repeated notes cross the keyboard, change color and gradually tilt the music from one tonal region into another.
Hermann Kretzschmar gives an impressive performance. The technical stamina is considerable, but more important is his ability to differentiate the successive patterns through touch, weight and dynamics. He prevents the piece from settling into a generalized Minimalist shimmer. At its best, the music seems to alter the listener’s perception of time; at other moments, its processes are more interesting than its expressive content. Even so, Kretzschmar makes the strongest possible case for this early Adams landmark.
The Chamber Symphony inhabits an entirely different world. Adams has described its unlikely origins in Schoenberg’s First Chamber Symphony and the cartoon music his young son was watching in the adjoining room. The finished score sounds as though those two influences have been locked together in a malfunctioning machine.
“Mongrel Airs” is appropriately named: jazzy gestures, fractured melodies and hurtling rhythmic figures compete for attention. “Aria with Walking Bass” briefly creates breathing room, although its apparent calm remains unstable. “Roadrunner” then launches the ensemble into a virtuoso chase in which the music seems perpetually on the verge of flying apart.
Ensemble Modern is superb here. The players meet the score’s extreme demands with precision but also with wit, bringing out its manic humor instead of treating it as a dry display of complexity. Edwards maintains a firm grip on music that depends upon sounding dangerously out of control.
The recording is close and detailed, an advantage in scores whose inner lines matter so much. The comparative dryness may not appeal to listeners seeking the richer orchestral sonority of Adams’s Nonesuch recordings, but it suits the leaner character of these performances.
Verdict: An excellent survey of Adams’s chamber music, crowned by a lucid and energetic account of the original Shaker Loops. Kretzschmar brings color and direction to the formidable Phrygian Gates, while Ensemble Modern turns the Chamber Symphony into a dazzling display of disciplined chaos.
