Adams, J: Grand Pianola Music

“Under Rattle the foxtrot from The Chairman Dances has unabated energy” Penguin Guide, January 2011

“A loud bash on an old tin can, and they're off – yelping, tapping, chattering, chasing to and fro, like a barn-yard full of loopy professors.
And to think that the prime mover for John Adams's madcap Chamber Symphony (1992) was its 'eponymous predecessor', Schoenberg's Op 9. Even the instrumentation is similar, save that Adams has added synthesizer, jazz-style percussion, trumpet and trombone.
It's a raw piece, with the merest suggestion of repose in the central 'Aria with Walking Brass' and a 'Roadrunner' finale that includes a manic violin cadenza followed by an ingenious passage where synthesizer, bass clarinet, bassoon and horn crank up for the panic-stricken home straight. It might not be exactly rich in tunes, but it's maddeningly moreish, a high-speed comedy where all the characters are temporarily on holiday from their more serious selves.
In complete contrast, the far gentler GrandPianola Music (1971) provides a relatively 'easy' listen, with its smooth-driving motor rhythms, sensual female voices, warming waves of brass tone and occasional bouts of thumping excitement.
Clichés there certainly are, especially the 'big tune' that crowns the third section, 'On the Dominant Divide', which is probably most effective when, towards the end of the work, it slims down to basic harmonic constituents.
Grand Pianola Music is a sort of aural truck ride, with smooth tarmac, plenty of scenic incident, a glowing sunset on the far horizon and a closing cadence that rather unexpectedly recalls Sibelius.
Both performances are fine and the recordings are superb.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010