Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

PAVILION 7:30 PM TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2024 NATIONAL CHILDREN’S SYMPHONY OF VENEZUELA † GUSTAVO DUDAMEL, conductor ADAMS Short Ride in a Fast Machine ESTÉVEZ Mediodía en el Llano (Midday on the Plain) * GINASTERA Suite from the Ballet Estancia (Ranch), op. 8a Los trabajadores agrícolas Danza del trigo Los peones de hacienda Danza final (Malambo) –Intermission– SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5 in D minor, op. 47 Moderato Allegretto Largo Allegro non troppo † Ravinia debut * First performance at Ravinia JOHN ADAMS (b.1947) Short Ride in a Fast Machine Scored for two flutes and two piccolos, two oboes and English horns, two or four clarinets, three bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, three woods blocks, pedal bass drum, snare drum, large bass drum, suspended cymbal, sizzle cymbal, large tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, glockenspiel, xylophone, crotales, two synthesizers, and strings John Adams was born in Worcester, MA, but raised in Concord, NH (“nerve central of the presidential primary campaigns”). After receiv- ing two degrees from Harvard University, he relocated to the West Coast in 1971 and began teaching and conducting at the San Francisco Conservatory. Between 1979 and 1985, Adams served as New Music Advisor and Compos- er-in-Residence for the San Francisco Sympho- ny. His innovative “New and Unusual Music” series garnered critical acclaim in the Bay Area and beyond. Adams also has been Creative Chair of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (1987–90), Music Director of the Ojai Festival (1993), Rich- ard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Car- negie Hall (2003–7), and, since 2009, the John and Samantha Williams Creative Chair with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A widely acclaimed composer, conductor, and spokesman for contemporary music, Adams earned the 1995 Grawemeyer Award for his Violin Concerto and the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music for On the Transmigration of Souls , a threnody written for the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center towers. Stylistically, Adams has been associated with Minimalist composers (Philip Glass, Steve Re- ich, and Terry Riley), though, in actuality, his music has grown beyond Minimalism’s repeti- tion of musical fragments, unvarying pulse, and consonant harmonic language based primarily on major triads and chords. Adams described his approach to composition in an interview with Jonathan Cott (June 1985): “I don’t develop my materials, I don’t work with identifiable motifs, so much as with forward motion that’s colored by its harmonic atmosphere. And I use large, powerful blocks—perhaps I should say ‘images,’ since I think that my music is more pictorial or cinematographic than it is developmental.” Adams found inspiration for Short Ride in a Fast Machine in a “white-knuckle, anxious” ride in a fancy Italian sports car. He composed this “fan- fare for orchestra” for the opening of the Great Woods Festival in Mansfield, MA, on June 13, 1986. Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony in the world premiere on that occasion. The music opens with the wood- block marking a steady pulse. Clarinets, synthe- sizers, and brass enter with opposing rhythmic patterns that continue as the strings and drum enter. The brass and tambourine play a contrast- ing theme, then the full orchestra resumes the opening materials. A brass chorale (horn bells in the air) drives to a full-throttle conclusion. “Part of the fun of Short Ride in a Fast Machine is making these large instruments—the tuba and double basses and contrabassoon, the en- tire brass section—move,” Adams explained in an interview. “They have to boogie through this very resolute and inflexible pulse that is set up by the woodblock. And it’s only at the very end of the piece when the woodblock finally stops that the orchestra suddenly feels free, as if it’s John Adams RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 5 – AUGUST 18, 2024 62 DEBORAHO’GRADY(ADAMS)