ADAMS AT DISNEY 

I consider John Adams to be the preeminent living American composer. So when a program is billed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic as “John Adams Conducts”, say no more, I wanna be there. It turns out Adams holds the position Creative Chair of the LA Phils. That meant this night he was more curator than conductor.

A world premiere set to open the program was cancelled due to performer illness. The Los Angeles Percussion Quartet filled in. Their selection, “Aura” played on a large ensemble of percussion instruments was performed in the dark. No really, the house lights were turned off and the players wore LED lights on their hands. It was less of a spectacle than what you might expect and for a percussion piece unexpectedly subdued.

Adams came to the stand for the second piece, yet another world premiere. Scored for brass, piano, harp and percussion, Anthony McIntosh’s “Shasta” proved to be more academic than engaging.

After intermission Adams came on stage microphone in hand to introduce the concluding two pieces. Both works he said were by composers he’d known and worked with during his early days in San Francisco. I’d read his delightful autobiography, “Hallelujah Junction” so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect.

First up, Julius Eastman’s minimalist “Evil Nigger” scored for four pianos. Notes reiterated, themes appeared and disappeared, all the while sonority rolled along. Intriguing though prolonged.

And then the finale, Salvatore Martirano’s “L.’s G. A. for Gas Masked Politico, Helium Bomb and Two-Channel Tape”. In which L is for Lincoln, G.A. is for Gettysburg Address and in which a gas masked narrator recites portions of Lincoln’s text while hitting on nitrous oxide and prowling the stage backed by a rudimentary psychedelic film and prepared tape. Silly? Perhaps. Then again, it's a preserved artifact of another time when the potential of creativity seemed infinite, at least so it seemed in 60’s San Francisco.

In all an evening more interesting than enthralling. I would way have preferred a full philharmonic orchestra filling this beautiful place with John Adams compositions. At least it was a return visit to the Frank Gehry architectural masterpiece that is Disney Hall.