Not wanting to hijack a thread on the performance of Nixon in China I thought I would start one here.
I have never got on well with John Adams' music.
As "minimalist" in a very elastic definition of the word, I have always found him less immediate than the best Glass and Reich (that being their earlier work). Adams represents a dilution of these composers' best work.
As a technician - as someone who knows how to write for instruments, and how to combine - he is very impressive.
As music, his pieces, to me, lack soul and heart (unlike, again the best Glass and Reich (think "Einstein", "Come Out", "It's Gonna Rain")).
Despite the often controversial and highly emotive subject matter of his operas, the music itself is without real human engagement or warmth. It is all surface glitter and superficial, without real depth.
His sense of drama is formulaic and one-dimensional.
As a composer he is highly over-rated.
(FWIW, I do not rate most of what Glass and Reich have done - compared to their earlier work - for the last 30 years or so (and I include, for example, the desperately boring "Desert Music" by Reich)).
Any thoughts?
I have never got on well with John Adams' music.
As "minimalist" in a very elastic definition of the word, I have always found him less immediate than the best Glass and Reich (that being their earlier work). Adams represents a dilution of these composers' best work.
As a technician - as someone who knows how to write for instruments, and how to combine - he is very impressive.
As music, his pieces, to me, lack soul and heart (unlike, again the best Glass and Reich (think "Einstein", "Come Out", "It's Gonna Rain")).
Despite the often controversial and highly emotive subject matter of his operas, the music itself is without real human engagement or warmth. It is all surface glitter and superficial, without real depth.
His sense of drama is formulaic and one-dimensional.
As a composer he is highly over-rated.
(FWIW, I do not rate most of what Glass and Reich have done - compared to their earlier work - for the last 30 years or so (and I include, for example, the desperately boring "Desert Music" by Reich)).
Any thoughts?
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