NEW YORK (J. Adamsal Official Website) - A year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, composer John Adams debuted his emotional response in the form of a classical piece titled,
On the Transmigration of Souls, which had its premiere last week.
The attacks last year had delayed the start of the New York Philharmonic's 2001-02 season, which prompted then-Music Director Kurt Masur to change the opening program to Brahms' German Requiem. A year later, under new Music Director Lorin Maazel, came another response: this new work by Adams, which premiered Thursday (Sept. 19) with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on the second half of the program to provide another message of brotherhood.
At the Friday (Sept. 20) performance, Maazel delivered a clean 70-minute reading of the Beethoven that had a ceremonial tone, overall a mainstream interpretation yet individual at some points. But it's the Adams that's newsworthy. In the program notes, he writes, "I want to avoid words like 'requiem' and 'memorial' when describing this piece ? I'd probably call the piece a 'memory space.' It's a place where you can go and be alone with your thoughts and emotions."
Adams keeps things down to earth. There's an underlay of taped sounds: traffic and street noises, and a reading of names of victims. The texts the two choruses (New York Choral Artists and Brooklyn Youth Chorus) sing are taken from the homemade posters for the missing that appeared on walls and lampposts in New York in the wake of the World Trade Center disaster. The first word heard is "missing"; the first sung word is "remember." Short phrases, even single words, commonplace in themselves, are woven into a dignified, emotionally moving tapestry.
On the Transmigration of Souls is a bit under a half hour in length, but seems timeless. Partly this is the lack of narrative, partly Adams' shimmering music. The effect is often meditative, but the element of conflict inherent in the acts of violence that took the lives of those whose names are being heard, and about whom the choruses are singing, is depicted by dissonances in the orchestra, clanging bells, and recorded sirens just before the emotional climax at the screaming anguish of the words "I wanted to dig him out, I know just where he is." After that, dissonance gives way to darkly lyrical music that's more soothing, sympathetic without pretending to have solved anything.
Adams received a standing ovation. For handling a difficult commission with quiet grace, he deserved it. It's easy to imagine On the Transmigration of Souls having a life beyond these particular circumstances.
