John Adams – Bridgewater Hall, Halle, Adams – 30/10/25

John Adams conductor; Mary Bevan soprano; Hallé Choir (Matthew Hamilton, choral director). . John Adams: Slonimsky’s Earbox; Debussy/John Adams Le Livre de Baudelaire; John Adams ‘This is prophetic!’ (Pat’s Aria from Nixon in China); Harmonium 

I have enjoyed listening to John Adams’ music for many years, and have several recordings of his music, but all the works programmed here were new to me (I am very much looking forward to seeing the Paris production of Nixon in China in February next year). I managed to listen to some parts of Harmonium before the concert and was particularly impressed by this work. And, of course, it was rather exciting to have Adams conducting these works in person (although he fairly often visits the UK, I haven’t seen him live before). It seems astonishing that he’s now 78, still lithe and energetic on the podium, and that Harmonium was composed 45 years ago. 

Slonimsky’s Earbox, the first piece on the programme, I liked very much. Although it occasionally still has the driving motor rhythms of minimalism, Adams’ music by the mid 90s had become more complex and diverse and this piece, very much a display piece (and written for the Halle almost 30 years ago during Kent Nagano’s regime) plays with all sorts of Stravinsky-like sounds, particularly the Rite of Spring. I am not quite sure what it amounted to but it was great fun. Next up was Adams’ orchestration of 4 Debussy songs. These were beautifully sung by Mary Bevan, and the orchestration sounded exquisite and fascinating, but the experience was somewhat marred by the lack of words – not even the title of the songs – neither in the programme or on the surtitles screen (which was used for Harmonium’s poems). This was disappointing.

After the interval we had Pat’s aria from Nixon in China – a rather beautiful setting of some very thoughtful and resonant lines from the clearly excellent libretto by Alice Goodman.     , again sung by Mary Bevan. Adams joked before about his problems with an American president – at which everyone laughed, thinking he meant Trump, but in fact he was referring to Nixon and Adams being drafted – or not – to Vietnam. There was warm applause when he talked about Pat’s aria’s words as intending to express something of what is good about America.

Harmonium is a most impressive work and I am amazed that I’ve never come across it before. It was written early in Adams’ career and though the motor rhythms are omni-present, the quality of the choral writing already indicates an individual voice very different from the world of Phillip Glass or Tim Riley’s In C.  It’s a setting of three poems by Donne (Negative Love) and Emily Dickinson (‘Because I could not stop for death’ and ‘Wild Nights’. I thought it a very fine piece for the following reasons:

• The choral writing is sensitive to the words and texture of the poems. In particular the first Emily Dickinson setting in its colouring clearly evokes this mysterious dream-like journey with death. The mad ecstasy of Wild Night is extraordinarily effectively conveyed by the choral writing, and the gradually increasing tension of the Donne poem is enhanced by the way the words are tossed around the choir
• The three chosen poems work very well together in offering 3 different kinds of quasi- mystical experience. It is a piece which creates something more than the sum of its parts
• The orchestral music is beautifully attuned to that sense of unworldly experience – the orchestral transition from the second to the third movement is remarkable in the way it moves from the icy stunned stillness of the first Dickinson poem to the momentum gradually gathering into the explosion of energy of ‘Wild Nights’

At the end the audience gave Adams, chorus and orchestra a completely justified standing ovation. The choir sung what must be very difficult music to get your vocal chords around and coordinated with the orchestra and conductor magnificently. Some get a bit sniffy about Adams, but for me – Harmonium particularly – this is just great music. Sadly I can’t go to the other concert Adams is giving, with a world premiere. A great pity…….