Composer John Adams has a son named Sam Adams. He had a work played last night at the CSO. The title is derived from a song in Die Wintereise. Interestingly it seems to start with a loud chord that sounds like the same chord that initiates the work that followed it, the Schumann 4th Symphony. It then settles into 20 minutes of what sounds like background music for Star Trek. It was harmless enough but as there was no mention of the Composer's relation to his famous father I spent most of the time wondering if the middle aged Gent that was sitting a few rows in front of me and was talking about music and the piece itself was in fact John Adams, and googling this morning has confirmed this.
The first half was the best part of the concert. Muti seemed to relish the overture to Rossini The Silken Ladder, and Mitsuko Uchida was sterling in the 3 Beethoven PC, using her sustain Pedal liberally to tightly control the dynamics (it would be fun to hear her with a period group). The Schumann was well done, with a lot of color in the strings helping give lie to the notion that the composer was an inept orchestrator.
The first half was the best part of the concert. Muti seemed to relish the overture to Rossini The Silken Ladder, and Mitsuko Uchida was sterling in the 3 Beethoven PC, using her sustain Pedal liberally to tightly control the dynamics (it would be fun to hear her with a period group). The Schumann was well done, with a lot of color in the strings helping give lie to the notion that the composer was an inept orchestrator.
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