Carmina Burana Music drawn from an opera about Los Alamos physicist J. Robert Oppen- heimer — John Adams’s Doctor Atomic — opens this weekend’s concerts. Carl Orff’s ever-popular Carmina burana makes up the second half.
JOHN ADAMS Born 15 February 1947; Worchester, Massachusetts
Doctor Atomic Symphony Composed: 2007 First performance: 21 August 2007; London, England Last MSO performance: March 2010; Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (2nd doubling E-flat clarinet, 3rd doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 4 trumpets (4th doubling piccolo trumpet), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (chimes, crotale, glockenspiel, bass drum, snare drum, thunder sheet, tam tam, suspended cymbals, tuned gong), harp, celeste, string Approximate duration: 25 minutes
Born and raised in New England, John Adams learned the clarinet from his father and played in marching bands and community orchestras during his formative years. He began composing at age ten and heard his first orchestral pieces performed while a still a teenag- er. After graduating from Harvard, he moved in 1971 to the San Francisco Bay area where he has lived ever since. Adams’s orchestral scores are among the most frequently performed and influential com- positions by an American since the era of Copland and Bernstein. Works such as Shaker Loops, Harmonielehre, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and his Violin Concerto are by now staples of the symphonic repertoire. His operas and oratorios, including Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, and Doctor Atomic — many with themes drawn from recent American history — have made a significant impact on the course of contemporary opera and are among the most produced by any living composer. Recent works include the Passion orato- rio The Gospel According to the Other Mary, Absolute Jest (for string quartet and orchestra, based on fragments of Beethoven), and Scheherazade.2, a “dramatic symphony for violin and orchestra,” written for Leila Josefowicz. Doctor Atomic Symphony is a purely instrumental work drawn from the 2005 opera. The following synopsis is reprinted with the kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes: The symphony is cast in a sustained, 25-minute single-movement arch, not unlike Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony, a work that has had an immense effect on Adams’s com- positional thinking. The opening, with its pounding timpani and Varèse-like jagged brass fanfares, conjures a devastated post-nuclear landscape. The frenzied “panic mu- sic” that follows comes from one of Act Two’s feverish tableaux that evoke the fierce electrical storm that lashed the test site in the hours before the bomb’s detonation. Carmina Burana PROGRAM NOTES
Instrumentation: Composed: Died 29March 1982;Munich, Germany 10July1895;Munich,Germany Born CARL ORFF Carmina Burana the enormous percussionthe enormous section(fiveplayers!) presides overitall. brass provide rhythmic andtimbraleffects, woodwindsolos offer further tonalvariety, and to medievalsong.Atthesame time,theorchestral scoringisquitecolorful:stringsand are themusical forms simple, harkeningback tion ofrustictunesand rhythmic patterns; lodic linesorchordal withlittlecontrapuntalwriting; there’s harmonies, aritualisticrepeti - arethe melodiesandharmonies diatonic;thechoraltextures are usuallyeither singleme- Orff settheseengagingtextsusingamusicallanguagethatisdeliberatelyuncomplicated: pillars attheverybeginningandend.Thestructure ofthepiecelookslikethis: sections, with“OFortuna”(thesametextandmusic bothtimes)servingasthesupporting ly captured bytheirdramaticpossibilities.Hechose24poemsandcastthem into three Orff(“Songs ofBeuern”). firstencountered theselibidinouslyricsin1935.Hewasinstant- Johann Schmellerpublishedthiscodexin1847,acollectionhetitledCarminaburana rites tomockpiety. theirtopicsrangefromGerman, personaltragedytoraucousdrinkingsongsorgiastic monks andscholarsactiveintheearlymedievalperiod.SetLatin,oldFrench, andold south ofMunich.Itcontainedc200secularpoemspennedbythegoliards, peripatetic In 1803,amanuscriptwasdiscovered about40miles attheabbeyofBenediktbeuern, and forthe“sceniccantata”ontonight’s program. body usingamixture ofsinging,dancing,acting, andplayingpercussion instruments— for children —adevelopmentalapproach calledOrff Schulwerkthatengagesmindand composerCarlOrffThe German isbestremembered forhisconceptsofmusiceducation Recommended recording: O Fortuna III. Courd’amours(CourtofLove) II. Intabera(IntheTavern) I. Primavere (Springtime)/Ufdemanger(OntheGreen) O Fortuna Last MSOperformance: the deserttestsite“Trinity.” icist hero oftheopera,J.RobertOppenheimer, lovedandthatinspired himtoname holy sonnet,“Battermyheart,three-person’d God.”Thisisthepoemthatphys- a setting(originallyforbaritonevoice,here playedbysolotrumpet)ofJohnDonne’s ny concludeswithaninstrumentaltreatment oftheopera’s mostmemorablemoment, dance”ofthelocalTewamusic thatgiveswaytotheritual“corn Indians.Thesympho- boorish trombone music,beratingboththescientistsandhismilitarysubordinates, GeneralLeslieGroves,to thetest.OnehearsU.S.Army here impersonatedinthe The ensuingmusicistakenfrom momentsthatdescribetheintenseactivityleadingup Approximate duration: First performance: (Nonesuch) David Robertson,St.LouisSymphonyOrchestra 59 minutes cymbals,xylophone), celeste,2pianos,strings suspended cymbals,tamtam,tambourine,triangle,finger cymbals, glockenspiel,ratchet,snare drum,sleighbells, timpani, percussion (bassdrum,chimes,castanets, 3trumpets,trombone,contrabassoon, 4horns, tuba, E-flat clarinet,3rd doublingbassclarinet), 2 bassoons, 3clarinets(2nddoubling doubling Englishhorn), 3 flutes(2ndand3rd doublingpiccolo),3oboes(3rd June 2015;Andreas Delfs, conductor 8 June1937;Frankfurt,Germany 1935-36 Carmina Burana PROGRAM NOTES
ness —andwithitselectrifyingbrawnvitality. its 1937premiere inFrankfurt,ithasdelightedaudienceseverywhere withitseasytuneful- it everbeen.Suchisourlotasmortals.Orff’s musicconveysthatmessagepowerfully. Since tates unceasingly. Onedaymaybringjoy, butthenextdaymaybringdevastation.Thushas thereprise of“OFortuna,”weareWith reminded onceagainthatthewheeloffortunero- final scene:theapotheosis“Ave anda formosissima” restatement oftheopeningchorus. The third section(“TheCourt ofLove”)portraysamorous gamesatcourt,thenleadstothe ontheroasting“Olim lacuscolueram,”thesadtaleofabeautifulswanthatnowturns spit. er-present decadencywithintheChurch. Ofparticularinterest here isthetenorsoloist’s section (“IntheTavern”) ruminatesonthedeplorablestateofworldandev- of dancesandroundelays interspersedwithgentler, more melodiousscenes.Thesecond sleep, depictingthespiritedrevelry ofvarioussocialgroups in“Ufdemanger,” asequence commercials —thefirst section (“Spring”)describesnature andloverisingfrom theirwinter Following theopeningchorus—familiarfrom itsuseinfilmsoundtracksandtelevision Recommended recording: Shaw, AtlantaSymphonyOrchestra andChorus(Telarc) Brown, HåkanHagegård;Judith Blegen,William Robert