John Adams: Grand Pianola; Steve Reich: Eight Lines; Vermont Counterpoint (1999)

Since minimalism is well-established as a major movement of the late twentieth century and widely practiced today, it may be surprising to find that John Adams' Grand Pianola (1982) ever provoked controversy. Yet its premiere riled the academic and avant-garde establishment, perhaps less for its explicit adoption of repetitive and additive patterns, which had been heard since the 1960s, but more for its extreme exploitation of pianistic clichés and relentless fixation on major scales and triads. Adams' music is deliberately ... Read More

Since minimalism is well-established as a major movement of the late twentieth century and widely practiced today, it may be surprising to find that John Adams' Grand Pianola (1982) ever provoked controversy. Yet its premiere riled the academic and avant-garde establishment, perhaps less for its explicit adoption of repetitive and additive patterns, which had been heard since the 1960s, but more for its extreme exploitation of pianistic clichés and relentless fixation on major scales and triads. Adams' music is deliberately and undeniably bombastic; but the shock value has decreased because Grand Pianola is no longer a novelty, and this recording's rather shallow reproduction captures little of the piece's rude, confrontational quality. Steve Reich's Vermont Counterpoint for piccolo, flutes, and tape (1982) and Eight Lines (1983, arranged from the 1979 Octet) are more successful works and easier to like for their textural consistency and richer elaborations of simple patterns; yet, though they resemble... Read Less

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2005, EMI UPC: 094633153424 CD See All