One of the world's greatest living composers, John Adams will conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in his own works in Orchestra Hall later this month. The program includes Adams' Violin Concert with soloist Leila Josefowicz, and his stirring tribute to the victims of September 11, 2001, the Pulitzer Prize-winning On the Transmigration of Souls.
Considered to be one of the first masterpieces of the 21st century, this moving oratorio will feature the University Musical Society Choral Union and the Michigan State University Children's Choir. Also on the program is Richard Strauss' Death and Transfiguration, another emotionally charged piece that musically depicts both the agony and transcendence of a soul departing the earth. The concerts take place in Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center on Thursday, March 29 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, March 31 at 8:30 p.m.; and Sunday, April 1 at 3 p.m.
Adams will offer insight into the concert program as these performances are part of the DSO's "Unmasked" series, which also features large video screens on which live images of the Orchestra and conductor are projected in close-ups. In addition, Adams will participate in post-concert chats with CBC radio host Tom Allen. The "Unmasked" Series is sponsored by American Express.
John Adams has produced both operatic and symphonic works that stand out among all contemporary classical music for the depth of their expression, the brilliance of their sound and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes. Born and raised in New England and educated at Harvard, Adams moved to California in 1971 where he taught for 10 years at the San Francisco Conservatory and was composer-in-residence for the San Francisco Symphony. Adams' operatic works are among the most successful of our time. Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer and Doctor Atomic, all created in collaboration with stage director Peter Sellars, draw their subjects from archetypal themes in contemporary history. Adams' celebrated orchestral works include Harmonium, The Chairman Dances, Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Doctor Atomic Symphony among many others.
On the Transmigration of Souls, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in commemoration of the first anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, won multiple Grammy Awards as well as the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The work musically addresses the emotional and psychological dimensions behind the paralytic shock felt after the attacks, and offers a vehicle for thinking about the nearly unthinkable. The powerful piece features both adult and children's choirs and a pre-recorded soundtrack of city sounds that remind us of the flow of life. Accompanying text, which will be projected on large screens, was assembled from 33 simple and direct fragments taken primarily from homemade missing person signs that had been posted in the immediate aftermath of the towers' destruction. The word "transmigration," as explained by Adams, refers to the "movement of the soul from one state to another." Not just "from living to dead, but also the change that takes place within the souls of those that stay behind.
Adams' Violin Concerto had its premiere in 1994 with Jorja Fleezanis and the Minnesota Orchestra under conductor Edo de Waart. In 1995 the New York City Ballet featured the concerto with choreography by Peter Martins. The Concerto is characterized by what the composer has called "hypermelody"- 33 minutes of endless melodic invention spinning out a range of moods. Each of the three movements is titled. The first, "Quarter Note =78" suggests a bare, austere composition approached with purely intellectual precision, yet it allows the expressive, human presence of the soloist to sing. The second, "Chaconne: body through which the dream flows," quotes a poem by Robert Haas and refers to the "duality of flesh and spirit" that Adams expresses throughout the movement. The finale, "Toccare" (an Italian verb meaning "to touch") refers to Renaissance and Baroque keyboard works that similarly show off the dexterity and skill of the performer.
Like On the Transmigration of Souls, Richard Strauss' tone poem, Death and Transfiguration (Tod und Verklärung), contemplates the journey of the soul as it leaves the earth. In this case, Strauss focused on the journey of one individual - "the dying hours of a man who had striven towards the highest idealist aims, maybe indeed those of an artist." The work is built in two broad sections, first depicting the struggles of the dying artist tormented by convulsions to resist death and the resulting defeat of his artistic goals; and then achieving these goals in a death transfigured in the realm of the spirit. Nearly six decades later, as the composer himself lay on his own deathbed, he announced: "Death is just as I composed it in Tod und Verklärung!"
Violinist Leila Josefowicz came to national attention in 1994 when she made her Carnegie Hall debut with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and has since appeared with many of the world's most prestigious orchestras and eminent conductors. A regular, close collaborator with leading composers of the day such as John Adams and Oliver Knussen, she is a strong advocate of new music - a characteristic that is reflected in her diverse programs and her enthusiasm for premiering new works. Josefowicz has appeared on numerous national broadcasts such as The Tonight Show, Evening at Pops and PBS' Live from Lincoln Center. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1994, Josefowicz is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. -- www.detroitsymphony.com
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