John Adams - My Father Knew Charles Ives; Harmonielehre (Giancarlo Guerrero)

Information

Composer: John Adams

1. My Father Knew Charles Ives: I. Concord
2. My Father Knew Charles Ives: II. The Lake
3. My Father Knew Charles Ives: III. The Mountain
4. Harmonielehre: I. —
5. Harmonielehre: II. The Anfortas Wound
6. Harmonielehre: III. Meister Eckhardt and Quackie

Nashville Symphony Orchestra

Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor

Date: 2021

Label: Naxos

-----------------------------------------------------------

Review

With Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass now well into their eighties, John Adams, at 74, remains perhaps the most vibrant representative of the first wave of American minimalism. This splendidly engineered new album from the Nashville Symphony presents fine performances of two of Adams’s characteristic orchestral works under their principal conductor since 2009, Giancarlo Guerrero. Nashville’s greatest claim to musical fame is as the capital of country music but its symphony orchestra, founded in 1946, has established an impressive reputation specialising in American music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

This is, if I’m not mistaken, only the second recording of My Father Knew Charles Ives, commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony in 2003. Cast in three movements and lasting about 28 minutes, the piece is a tribute to Adams’s fellow New Englander and draws on pastiche techniques employed by Ives himself. The Nashville musicians meet the score’s many demands head-on, including the challenging if highly idiomatic wind parts, achieving an atmospheric soundscape both poignant and exhilarating.

No doubt the Harmonielehre recorded during the Berlin Philharmonic’s John Adams 70th-birthday retrospective in 2016-17 and conducted by the composer is likely to remain the gold standard of this now iconic work for some time. That said, Guerrero’s performance with Nashville need not apologise. The drama of the first movement is captured in a wealth of orchestral detail less discernible in other recordings; shapes and contours are delineated with special care. The desolate angst of ‘The Anfortas Wound’ is vividly evoked, devolving finally into something like collapse, so that when the luminous realms of ‘Meister Eckhardt and Quackie’ are finally revealed, ever so gently, they fairly shimmer. If this Harmonielehre may not be the equal of Rattle/Birmingham in terms of power or of Nagano/Montreal in terms of finesse, its attention to detail and sheer affective impact are unassailable.

Both the pairing of these two particular works and their singular performances make this a welcome addition to any Adams collection.

— Patrick Rucker

-----------------------------------------------------------

John Adams (born 15 February 1947) is an American composer and conductor. Educated at Harvard, he initially embraced modernism before developing a distinctive style that blends minimalism with expressive, eclectic influences. Based in San Francisco, Adams gained recognition through orchestral works such as Harmonium, Harmonielehre and Short Ride in a Fast Machine. He is also a major operatic composer, with works including Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer and Doctor Atomic, often addressing historical and political themes. His music has earned many honors, including Grammy and Pulitzer Prizes.

***

Giancarlo Guerrero (born 14 March 1969) is a Costa Rican orchestra conductor. Born in Managua, Nicaragua, he emigrated to Costa Rica, where he began his musical training before earning degrees from Baylor University and Northwestern University. Guerrero has held prominent posts with the Minnesota Orchestra, Eugene Symphony and Táchira Symphony Orchestra. He became music director of the Nashville Symphony in 2009, concluding his tenure in 2025 after earning multiple Grammy Awards for his acclaimed recordings. He also served as music director of the Wrocław Philharmonic from 2017 to 2024.

-----------------------------------------------------------