2019 Annual Report Erasmus Prize John Adams

2019 Annual Report Erasmus Prize John Adams 1 Annual Report Composing Erasmus Prize for 2019 Today 2019 Colophon Annual Report Erasmus Prize Foundation © 2020 Photography Frank van Beek, Ineke Oostveen, Vern Evans Illustrations Reynoud Homan Text Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, John Adams Layout Nynke Hylkema Published by Praemium Erasmianum Foundation Jan van Goyenkade 5 1075 HN Amsterdam T + 31 (0)20 67 52 753 E [email protected] www.erasmusprijs.org Contents Preface 7 Citation 8 Laudatio 10 Acceptance Speech John Adams 13 Biography John Adams 17 Activities 19 Research Prizes 2019 23 Origin and Aim of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation 30 Board 31 Amplitude of Road Movies (John Adams, 1995), around an imaginary globe 6 Preface The Erasmus Prize 2019 was awarded to the Besides the Erasmus Prize, the Foundation in 2019 also American composer and conductor John Adams for awarded its annual Dissertation Prizes to five young PhD his contribution to contemporary classical music. The scholars who, according to the jury, produced excellent theme of the prize this year was ‘Composing for today’, dissertations. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts a subject that seems to inspire all of Adam’s music. Not and Sciences hosted the award ceremony. only does he succeed in bringing together elements of jazz, popular and classical music to create a new This annual report contains short reports about all musical world that appeals to a wide audience, but he these activities. We thank all our collaboration partners also succeeds in addressing complex societal issues who took part so enthusiastically: the Muziekgebouw through music that speaks to audiences. Accessibility to aan ’t IJ, the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, the contemporary classical compositions — connecting with Conservatorium van Amsterdam, the Louis Hartlooper the public rather than isolating oneself inside a hermetic Complex and NPO Radio 4. universe — is an important goal of this major composer. The highlight of the year was the Erasmus Prize award The diversity of Adam’s work was reflected in a varied ceremony on 28 November 2019 at the Royal Palace in programme of activities aimed specifically at young Amsterdam. His Majesty the King presented the Erasmus musicians and emerging composers. On the day of the Prize to John Adams during the festive ceremony, in Erasmus Prize award ceremony, Adams’ music could the presence of Her Majesty the Queen and Her Royal be heard at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, performed Highness Princess Beatrix. We are very grateful to the by the Nieuw Ensemble, conducted by Ed Spanjaard. Royal Family for their hospitality. The evening included a homage to Adams specially composed for this concert, a new score by the Dutch Jet de Ranitz, chair composer Rick van Veldhuizen. Young composers also Shanti van Dam, director featured in the intensive masterclass that Adams led at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. In addition, Adams spoke at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with young composers during a jazz event entitled ‘An Evening with John Adams’. Framed by live music from the conservatorium’s big band, Andrea van Pol interviewed Adams about his musical memories, and Adams spoke to tutors and students about the music profession and discussed why young people would still want to explore the profession today. Adams the film composer was highlighted with a screening of Io Sono l’Amore at the Louis Hartlooper Complex in Utrecht, with an extensive introduction by Michel Schöpping. NPO Radio 4 devoted plenty of attention to John Adams throughout the week leading up to the Erasmus Prize award ceremony, culminating in a highly appreciated radio interview with him that was broadcasted during the award ceremony. Excellent articles about him also appeared online and in the national newspapers. 7 Citation Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, The Prize is awarded to him on the following grounds: ladies and gentlemen, • He has created a new musical idiom by fusing “Music can distract the mind from all that is sacred. If one elements from jazz, pop and classical music. is not careful, the power of music – appreciated by the ancient Greeks as an important part of their education – • According to the jury, he has made contemporary can lead us into vulgarity, levity and absurdity.” classical music ‘communicate’ again. That is to say, he has found ways to bridge the gap with audiences Thus wrote Desiderius Erasmus around the year 1519 previously alienated. This is vital at a time when the in a letter to a close friend. genre has increasing difficulty in finding a following. Erasmus claims that by stirring the heart, music can be • He often addresses social issues, something he sees as dangerous to the mind. the artist’s duty. What distinguishes him furthermore, In an ode to his composer friend Ockeghem, however, he is the deeply humanistic nature of his themes. wrote: “Divina res est musica” — • He is not just a great composer, but also a writer who “Music is a godly thing…” reflects on the social relevance of classical music. He expresses both musically and intellectually — with “…it can function as a tool to get to the deepest the heart and with the mind — the importance of understanding of Our Lord.” classical music in our time. “For this to happen” – Erasmus claims – “music needs to Read by Shanti van Dam, director be minimal in form and humble in appearance.” The Board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation has decided to award the Erasmus Prize 2019 to the American composer and conductor John Adams for his contribution to contemporary classical music. “He has made contemporary classical music ‘communicate’ again” 8 Welcome by Chair Jet de Ranitz. Director Shanti van Dam reading the Citation. 9 Laudatio Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness,Your Excellencies, Donatoni, ‘I’m just like a typesetter. I arrange the notes in ladies and gentlemen, the right order.’ Please allow me to start this laudation in an Some Italian terms we musicians use every day, such as unconventional manner, with a poem by Emily Dickinson. ‘staccato’ and ‘legato’. It’s titled: To make a prairie. Thinking about the music of John Adams a ‘staccato’ evokes an association with his rhythmic vitality and To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, colour brilliance. And ‘legato’, with his gift for composing One clover, and a bee, large-scale structures and moving lyrical melodies. And revery. The revery alone will do, Yet for him, composing never becomes routine. It If bees are few. is an intense, partly intellectual, partly subconscious process. That’s what Adams said in a conversation with composition students at the Conservatorium in This airy and touching poem, which seems to capture Amsterdam. I was touched by the fellow-feeling he the creative process in so few words, was imaginatively demonstrated as he engaged with the students. His translated into Dutch by Peter Verstegen: attitude wasn’t one of: “Wait till you’re as old and famous as I am”, but more of: “Indeed, it’s a real art to come up with a catchy opening and then follow it up coherently”. I Het maken van een wei vereist een klavertje en één bij, was struck by the compassion he showed towards those Eén klavertje, een bij, budding composers. En dromerij, Genoeg is enkel dromerij John Adams is a highly esteemed and respected composer Bij weinig bij. in Dutch musical life. He maintains close relationships with the Concertgebouworkest, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Schönberg Ensemble To me, these lines by Emily Dickinson also relate to – three ensembles that over the years have performed the music of John Adams: inventive, seemingly evident, much of his work, with the laureate himself often on but made on the strength of a close connection with the rostrum. Edo de Waart occupies a special place the surrounding world. For those of us who are not because in the early 1980s – almost 40 years ago – he composers – in other words, for many of us – that was chief conductor with the San Francisco Orchestra. reverie is especially intriguing. He premiered various pieces by Adams, and he encouraged him to compose large-scale works, no doubt Let me digress for a moment and mention Franco giving the budding composer some decisive words of Donatoni, the Italian composer who died in 2000. encouragement in the process. Nothing to do with John Adams, it might seem. I performed a lot of Donatoni’s music with the Nieuw That resulted in 1981 in Harmonium, an impressive Ensemble, and I remember he told me how a woman composition first performed by Edo de Waart. This choral once asked him what his profession was. His answer? symphony is partly based on a text by – there she is I’m a compositore. Now you should know that the Italian again – Emily Dickinson. It’s a dazzling and ecstatic piece word ‘compositore’ does not just mean ‘composer’ but that calls to mind the fascinating title: I was looking at the also ‘typesetter’: a newspaper typesetter. Aha, replied Ceiling and then I saw the Sky, Adams’ rock opera that the woman, ‘My cousin also works for the newspaper. premiered in 1995 at UC Berkeley, directed by his trusty You arrange the letters in the right order!’ Exactly, said lieutenant Peter Sellars, and featuring a decor by graffiti 10 artists from LA. Even though Harmonium is written for a John Adams himself once explained that European more conventional choir and orchestra, what unfolds in classical music, with its 12 standard notes, is insufficient the music is anything but ordinary: the heavens open and for him. The slide, the blue note – from Jimi Hendrix to light starts to pour in.

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