John Adams: Son of Chamber Symphony

John Adams conducts the London Sinfonietta in this eclectic snapshot of American contemporary and experimental music. Son of Chamber Symphony, one of the composer’s newest works, is filled with Adams’ typical musical inventiveness. It’s an uplifting, energising work of driving rhythms, whimsical melodies and quirky tonal colours and sounds.

It’s not often that a piece features instruments ranging from pianos, to tin cans, to electric buzzers, as well as a radio operator playing fragments of live radio or sound samples of pre-selected recordings, but that’s what you hear in John Cage’s unusual Credo in US.

Paul Dresher’s music is described as ‘chamber music with a clang’. His minimalist style shows influences from North Indian and Balinese musical traditions, and combines traditional acoustic and contemporary electronic instruments.

David Lang says his work is ‘something dark’; ‘I wanted to make a piece that was about something disreputable. In fact, the instruction in the score for how to play it says: Ominous funk.’

6.15pm Take Note: Pre concert talk
John Adams discusses Son of Chamber Symphony and his latest work, and answers questions from the audience.