John Adams
Son of Chamber Symphony/String Quartet

Listen to this release, then dig up a recording of Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E, Op. 9 (1906), a knotty, daring ride through outer space. Schoenberg figured out more than a century ago, and Adams discovered with his 1992 Chamber Symphony (this one's called Son of), that fewer players to write for allows for greater virtuoso writing for the whole ensemble. Schoenberg blasts themes like rock salt, spraying them around and letting each horse take the lead once in a while, but the sound world of Son of, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble and conducted by the composer, is a tightly-run comical dude ranch, with occasional bursts of free-rein expressionism. Adams ramps up the less-is-more strategy in his String Quartet (2008), composed for and performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Both pieces are surprising and comical and constantly shape shift. This isn't post-minimalist, ambient chill-out music, not that there aren't gorgeous moments. There's some Nancarrow here, and lots of levity, and it's far more 3-D Avatar than Oskar Kokoschka.

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