What, no Nancarrow? Adams's Grand Pianola Music at the Barbican
John Adams's Chamber Symphony and Grand Pianola Music, Timo Andres's Steady Hand and Philip Glass's Music in Similar Motion
Britten Sinfonia
Barbican Hall
25 February 2017
Stalls L74, £15
I bought my ticket to this concert back in June 2016, I think because I just assumed it would somehow be Nancarrow-inspired. So there I was, nary a Nancarrow-reference in sight, while over at the Wigmore the JACK Quartet was having a Xenakis day. Well. Hopefully this will teach me a lesson to read about what I buy a bit more carefully before buying it. Frankly this music is not my cup of tea and unsurprisingly I didn't enjoy it very much, despite excellent playing and all the rest.
It wasn't completely nuts of me to think I might enjoy it, though, as there is a lot of Adams I love: play me 'Batter my heart' from Doctor Atomic and I dissolve toute suite. And in fact I enjoyed the Chamber Symphony a lot (if not to that level), with its delirious cross-rhythms and Shaker Loops-style propulsive energy. Over on the left of the hall as I was I got more of the percussion than was perhaps ideal balance-wise – which at least meant I had ample opportunity to admire Toby Kearney's virtuoso playing.
Next came the world premiere of Timo Andres's Steady Hand for two pianos and orchestra, with the composer taking one piano alongside (opposite from) regular collaborator David Kaplan. I'm not familiar with Andres's work otherwise and of course cold is rarely the best way to appreciate new works in concert (although sometimes it excitingly is). The piece opens very prettily with a texture held by the two pianos, and gradually accompanying instruments are added or removed with some pleasing effects of orchestration. But with a minimally varying texture and harmony I struggled to pay attention for the piece's duration, feeling finally it was pretty in a background kind of way.
I struggle with Glass and as Music in Similar Motion is arguably the Glassiest thing ever, with its line of continuous semiquavers confined within a minor 6th, I thought I would be in for the long haul. I did, though, find myself bopping along quite merrily, while also admiring the committed playing of the youthful Britten Academy alongside the Sinfonia, and Schwartz's neat rallying as arms, lips and brains began to tire.
So (following a lengthy set change) I was all set for the main Adams event. While, as I say, I like a lot of Adams, it turns out there are one or two that I really don't like and Grand Pianola Music is one of them: for me ponderous, grandiose, needlessly difficult and insufferably 80s. My opinion was very much not shared by the majority of the hall, many of whom rose to their feet in appreciation. I learn now that the piece was used in Civ IV, so maybe without realizing it I associate it with the frustration of never quite getting to Alpha Centauri.
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