John Adams - "El Nino"

[WoobieATL]

Well, well, well.....................what can I say.............John Adams has baffled me again.

I am going to try and tell you what I thought of this massive 2 and a half hour concert.

All my expressions are mine and I envite every one of you who read this to take the time and go listen to this composition live or a recording of it. You will easily be educated by it and possibly enlightened.

It's good that they have little descriptions (I wouldn't call it a libretto, but you can think of it like that), because at times, it's a little overwhelming trying to listen to the orchestra, the chorus and the main singers and decipher it all. You can really think of it more like an Opera without the acting. The lyrics are in spanish and english. Mr. Adams is celebrating the birth of Christ (El Nino - Little Baby Jesus) as well as the Latin Heritage from where he lives, California. There are 2 screens subtitling all the lyrics in English and Spanish.

The first thing that suprised me was to see all the performers (even the conductor!) in blue jeans or khakis and white shirts of some kind. Before the first note sounded, I knew I was in for something special.

The beginning opens with a beautiful ostinato/syncopated palette of sound that he's known for..........and as this happened, my eyes started to well up with tears, here I am , finally at the Southeastern Premiere of this glorious masterpiece.

Note - if you are a fan by only listening to "Short Ride in a Fast Machine", this may not be your ball of wax. In fact, the friend that went with me played in my marching band, never marched corps, but loves Drum Corps and he mentioned that the concert was a little over his head. He loved sections of the concert, but was turned off by others. There is minimal tonality as the general public sees it, but then there are parts that I can already see that are ready for the football field. To follow up on the general public's liking/disliking for the concert, after intermission............about one quarter to one third of the seats were empty; and the night was 97% sold out. I'll tell you that the second part was much more 'action-packed' compared to the first part.

Now, in the middle of this, I'll direct you to a website where you can listen to excerpts of the composition:

Go here: http://www.adams-el-nino.org/ and click on 'Text and Audio'

The instrumentation consists of a full orchestra with 3 people playing keyboards (piano and synths) 2 classical guitars, a Full Chorus which was roughly 100-120 men and women, and a children chorus as well as the lead singers: a Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Bass, and three Countertenors (think of them as really high singing tenors in falsetto and such). These singers were amazing. The three Countertenors were absolutely amazing. All of their music was pretty much atonal singing in 3 part harmony. I was trying to listen to the orchestra give them some sort of tonal center in which they could 'hear' their part before singing, but I could not find any. They all studied at Indiana University at some part of their career and handled an amazingly difficult score with ease, musicality and grace.

There is really too much to get into about the last 2.5 hours, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It may have been because I studied 20th Century Composition for part of my college career; it could have been because I'm a John adams fan and understand every new piece of music I hear will only educate me even more, or maybe it was the interpretation of The birth of Christ. Probably all three.

The only things that I did not copmpletely appreciate tonight was the fact that at times the Lead Singers and chorus seemed to drown out the orchestra. All the lead singers were on wireless mics. Maybe it was the mix, maybe not. But I really missed some of the intricacies that John Adams is known for in his orchestrations. I cannot wait to hear a recording to fully hear that wonderful orchestral composition.

All in all it was an incredible evening. I will reiterate that this concert may not be for everyone, but I think if the price is right and they are performing in your area, it's an experience that you will not forget.

By the way, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is travelling up to Chicago to play at Ravinia next week! Have fun Chi-Town!

In ending, I'm sure some whiz of an arranger will find a great 15 minutes of program out of this composition to put it on the field. This is not for a corps who is only out to entertain the masses. This would be in the group with Star 1993's performance of Bartok and Barber, and Star 1990's performance of Belshazzar's Feast. I'm sure there are more performances that can be put in this group, but off the top of my head, they are the ones that spring to the top. Hmm.........I wonder why?

Anyhow, in the furtherment of the education of the Arts, it's a sure bet.

Have a great summer and Enjoy!