Klarinet Archive - Posting 000180.txt from 2005/06

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Somehow I passed my own test
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 13:10:27 -0400

In a message dated 6/7/2005 10:38:54 PM Central Daylight Time, =20
curtis.bennett@-----.com writes:
<<Gnarley Buttons isn't Adams' best work.>>
=20
I don't know about that, I have only heard the piece a couple of times. =20
However, this past season the orchestra I play in performed another Adams pi=
ece, =20
"The Chairman Dances" from "Nixon in China."
=20
Although the piece was not fun to perform, and we had to over-rehearse it =20
because most of the musicians either didn't understand or were openly hostil=
e, =20
what emerged was a fascinating and moving piece of music.
=20
To quote Adams directly -
=20
"So The Chairman Dances began as a "foxtrot" for Chairman Mao and his bride=
,=20
Chiang Ch=E2=80=99ing, the fabled "Madame Mao," firebrand, revolutionary =20
executioner, architect of China=E2=80=99s calamitous Cultural Revolution, an=
d (a fact not=20
universally realized) a former Shanghai movie actress. In the surreal final=20=
scene=20
of the opera, she interrupts the tired formalities of a state banquet, =20
disrupts the slow moving protocol and invites the Chairman, who is present o=
nly as a=20
gigantic forty-foot portrait on the wall, to "come down, old man, and =20
dance." The music takes full cognizance of her past as a movie actress. Them=
es, =20
sometimes slinky and sentimental, at other times bravura and bounding, ride=20=
=20
above in bustling fabric of energized motives. Some of these themes make a =20=
dreamy=20
reappearance in Act III of the actual opera, en revenant, as both the Nixon=
s=20
and Maos reminisce over their distant pasts."=20
=20
The piece itself was riveting in performance. I can only imagine its effect=20=
=20
on stage.
=20
Let's keep an open mind here. Remember "The Rite of Spring" was booed, and =20
Tschaikovsky's "Violin Concerto" was panned by the critics.=20

Walter Grabner
www.clarinetXpress.com
World-class clarinet mouthpieces
=20

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