Adams remembers Ives: new orchestral work
(March 2003)
The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas gave the premiere of John Adams’s new orchestral work on 30 April, followed by a European tour.
Entitled My Father Knew Charles Ives, the work is according to the composer "about my musical childhood, growing up in a small New England town, playing in marching bands with my father and being exposed to the work of Thoreau, Emerson and Ives at an early age. The piece is, in a sense, my own Proustian madeleine, but with a yankee flavor. There are three movements, each with an Ivesian title; Concord, The Lake and The Mountain. The Concord in this case, however, is Concord, New Hampshire, my home town. The lake is Lake Winnipesaukee, where my grandfather owned a dance hall for thirty years. And the mountain, is the one I could see from behind the family house. The work is written for Michael Tilson Thomas, a friend and, like me, an admirer of Charles Ives."
In a recent New York Newsday interview Adams wrote: "As you get older, it's a normal response to try to go back and establish a patrimony for yourself. Ives for me is a model of honesty, moral and philosophical honesty. He was far more politically active than I am, but he did it right, working through the political process: He knew that art can't change political events and that the role of art is a spiritual one."
Reviewing the work's premiere, Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle called My Father Knew Charles Ives "a funny, rueful and heartbreakingly beautiful musical memoir. Wrote Kosman, "John Adams has provided San Francisco Symphony audiences with some powerful musical experiences over the years, but nothing to compare with the rich emotional splendor of his latest opus. My Father Knew Charles Ives...melds Adams' personal history with that of American concert music in one easy and daring artistic stroke....This is a major addition to the orchestral repertoire and will be with us for a long time."
My Father Knew Charles Ives (2003)
performances by the San Francisco Symphony
conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas
2003
30 April San Francisco (world premiere)
1/2 May San Francisco
8 May Dublin (European premiere)
9 May Barbican, London
11 May Brighton Festival
13 May Brussels
16 May Düsseldorf
18 May Cologne
21 May Konzerthaus, Vienna
24 May Prague Spring Festival
2004
23 March Carnegie Hall, New York
> Further information on Work: My Father Knew Charles Ives
Photo © Christine Alicino
> News Search
Mailing List
Sign up for news updates and offers via email
SIGN UPFeatured Publication
Britten: War Requiem
Britten's pacifist masterwork, combining war poetry by Wilfred Owen with the Latin Requiem Mass, is included in the Masterworks Library of full scores, ideal for conductors, students and music lovers.
READ MORECompetitions
