Prom 66: John Luther Adams’s In the Name of the Earth - 8.09.19

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

11:00 Sunday 8 September 2019
Royal Albert Hall

John Luther Adams - In the Name of the Earth - European première

Hackney Empire Community Choir
Victoria Park Singers
BBC Symphony Chorus
Crouch End Festival Chorus
London International Gospel Choir
London Philharmonic Choir
London Symphony Chorus
LSO Community Choir

Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer John Luther Adams is a master of large-scale musical spectacles – sonic installations that take the natural world not just as their inspiration but also as a stage. In the Name of the Earth celebrates the elements in a musical meditation on rivers, lakes, mountains and deserts.
The Proms audience immersed in the sound of eight choirs – totalling more than 600 singers – placed around the auditorium.
Marshalling these huge vocal forces are conductors Neville Creed, Neil Ferris, Simon Halsey and David Temple.

[jayne lee wilson]

New Release, latest instalment....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/john-luther-adams-become-desert-ludovic-morlot-seattle-symphony-chorale-seattle-symphony/futys8pn3rnua

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm bumping this concert to the top of the pile

[doversoul1]

I'm bumping this concert to the top of the pile

8.08.19 ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

8.08.19 ?

[Richard Barrett]

New Release, latest instalment....

I had a listen to that and found it pretty tedious. Not having heard any of his music before, I didn't feel compelled to explore further, but maybe that's an unfair conclusion to jump to.

[Master Jacques]

I had a listen to that and found it pretty tedious. Not having heard any of his music before, I didn't feel compelled to explore further, but maybe that's an unfair conclusion to jump to.

Ten minutes in, I find myself thinking that this gargantuan plea to "cherish the earth" might have been better served by (a) saving the huge resources it's cost humanity to get 700 performers to the RAH, and (b) saving electricity by turning off all the lights and air-con.

What a waste of musical and mental space. When there's so much good, new music around, giving air time to this sanctimonious drivel is a crime against nature and good taste. Come back Stainer, all is forgiven.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I had a listen to that and found it pretty tedious. Not having heard any of his music before, I didn't feel compelled to explore further, but maybe that's an unfair conclusion to jump to.

Gave it half an hour this morning but it didn't seem to be going anywhere much!

[Bryn]

I had a listen to that and found it pretty tedious. Not having heard any of his music before, I didn't feel compelled to explore further, but maybe that's an unfair conclusion to jump to.

Perhaps "you had to be there". I had sort of meant to but when it came it, decided not to get an early morning bus, bed being far too comfortable. Will the binaural version make it more interesting? I have severe doubts regarding that.

[bluestateprommer]

I had a listen to that and found it pretty tedious. Not having heard any of his music before, I didn't feel compelled to explore further, but maybe that's an unfair conclusion to jump to.

I'd actually heard the new CD of Become Desert a few months back, so that planted subliminal ideas of what to expect. Had I done my homework, I'd have read this commentary by JLA from last year, from Lincoln Center's website, in advance:

http://www.lincolncenter.org/article/in-the-name-of-the-earth

But having heard it, I can understand the hostile reactions here. Perhaps that's why SM-P avoided her standard editorializing after the work. I'm more with Bryn in thinking that one had to be there. One perhaps major difference between the Proms performance and the Lincoln Center performance, at a guess, was that the Proms performance used choral groups, while the NYC performance had a much stronger quotient of free-standing individuals not tied to a particular choir. This page actually names all the NYC singers:

https://www.inthenameoftheearth.org/