John Adams

80 years of John Adams: a celebration of one of the greatest composers of our time. Among those paying tribute are Alan Gilbert, Gustavo Dudamel and Lisa Batiashvili – and Adams himself conducts one of the concerts.

John Adams
John Adams © Margaretta Mitchell

Description

He is one of the most frequently performed composers of our time: the American John Adams. His refined yet highly sensual works are rooted in the rhythmic energy of minimal music, which spread from California across the globe from the 1960s onwards. Adams enriches this style with a shimmering harmonic palette and, at times, socially and politically charged themes. On 15 February 2027, he turns 80 – reason enough to present some of his major works across five concerts. Among them is »Harmonielehre« (its title an ironic nod to Arnold Schönberg), which fills the Grand Hall with radiant tone colours on the occasion of the Elbphilharmonie’s tenth anniversary.

Two further concerts by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra feature »Lollapalooza«, originally composed as a birthday gift for Sir Simon Rattle, and »Absolute Jest«, based on fragments of music by Ludwig van Beethoven. True specialists in Adams’s music are the musicians of the New York Philharmonic, who, under the baton of their new Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, perform »On the Transmigration of Souls«, written in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The highlight sees Adams himself take the podium with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducting some of his greatest hits, including »Shaker Loops« and »Short Ride in a Fast Machine«, the works that marked his breakthrough in the early 1980s.

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