John Adams - A Portrait And Concert Of American Music DVD

In a format that ought to be widely emulated, this Composers of Our Time feature comprises a portrait of American composer John Adams, followed by a concert that places his music in a suitable context. Adams has come a long way from the Harvard graduate who travelled to San Francisco in the early 1970s, taking a number of menial jobs while he discovered his own idiom. Those years are vividly recalled by the composer, and the seven-part documentary also features extracts from three of his stageworks, all of which are controversial but relevant in their choice of topics... and handling of issues. David Jeffcock's direction makes the most of some stunning West Coast scenery, and the only real drawback here is the plodding, clichéd narration. The concert portion was filmed live at the Chatelet in Paris, and features the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Jonathan Nott, currently their Music Director and a conductor with a future. André Trouttet is the scintillating soloist in Adams' stylish if vacuous clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons, while the musically more substantial Chamber Symphony is given virtuoso treatment, as are Steve Reich's classic Eight Lines and arrangements of two Player Piano Studies by Conlon Nancarrow. On the DVD: Composers of Our Time: John Adams comes with options of PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.0 or DTS 5.0, while the 16:9 picture format captures Bob Coles' perceptive direction in full. Subtitles are in English, French, German and Spanish, and there are three related Arthaus trailers. It all adds up to a stimulating and informative package. --Richard Whitehouse [show more]

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