Music Review: ELEMENTS AND ENERGY (John Adams and the LA Phil New Music Group at Disney Hall)

Last season, the LA Phil premiered the first five of 16 etudes commissioned by Creative Chair John Adams, with the goal to have a piece for each instrument of the orchestra to show off as a soloist. On January 28, we got to hear three more premieres from the series. First was Quantum Ptarmigan, by Gabriella Smith for Ben Ullery on viola. Imagine a donkey hee-hawing on loop, but make it squeaky, scratchy, and droning. Watching Ullery bow back and forth in large motions on the same notes made me think of this as little more than doing reps for endurance. Frankly, it looked like he was sawing; I wished for a real saw so he could cut the viola in half and be done with it. The etude was sometimes plaintive, but was generally unpleasant. I felt relief at the end, when it quietly blew away like a dandelion puff.

Francisco Coll’s etude, Partita I for trombone, was on the program, but not performed. The remaining two etudes began the second half of the program.

Sometimes, the title hints at how enjoyable a work is going to be (see above). Next was Not a dream sound, but a sound which sleeping we had really heard, a premiere for strings, celesta, Rhodes piano, and percussion by Noah Jenkins. It began with ringing xylophones, which persisted throughout the nearly 15-minute piece. Every now and then, we’d hear a glaze of celeste. The strings played tenuous, sustained long notes that sounded like they were tuning. There was a lot of droning and groaning, but I wasn’t convinced the music was going anywhere. The percussion provided some booms as we got deeper into the dream space, but all it did was remind me of Max Richter’s dreamier Sleep. Not a dream sound almost achieved some kind of peace at the end, but there was still uneasy dissonance and sour notes as the strings played slow whole notes to death.

Missy Mazzoli’s Dark with Excessive Bright (2018), a showcase for solo contrabass and strings, concluded the first half of the concert. It starts with a sudden plunge into gloom and darkness, like rushing blindly through the woods and brushing against the branches. Meanwhile, solo bass, played by Christopher Hanulik, plows through the morass and quicksand-like strings. A sense of urgency and peril pervades. It would be a perfect addition to Halloween programming. The audience warmly embraced this.

After intermission, the new etudes continued with Dylan Mattingly’s a study of some of the terrible ways I love to play the cello, played by cellist Robert deMaine. It was rough, earthy, dance-like, filled with fiddling, plucking, banging, and just about any gimmick you can imagine. There was a lengthy section where deMaine sang. Sitting in Orchestra East, I only saw his back, so I missed out on this part of his performance, which those who could see found genuinely funny. As the piece climaxed, it maintained it’s humorous approach while deMaine played faster and faster until he was on fire. This etude got a great reception.

Samy Moussa provided the final etude of the night with Jocelyn Morlock in memoriam, for Marion Arthur Kuszyk on oboe. Its mournful, lonely setting brought to mind the shepherd’s scene in Tristan and Isolde. While unshowy and somewhat sparse, this is a fiendish kind of slow piece that threatens to turn into ungraceful honks at any moment, were it not for Kuszyk’s control and mastery of the instrument while she navigated perilously high notes and jumps. I found this thoroughly absorbing.

The main course of the second half was Donnacha Dennehy’s piano concerto, Limina (2023), with Eliza McCarthy, for whom it was composed, on piano. The first movement, “Head,” was propulsive, exciting, and sparkling, as neurons lighting up in the brain, eventually becoming broody and thoughtful. McCarthy barreled through a torrent of notes, ever-increasing in drama and intensity. When she finished her cadenza, concluding the first movement, the entire audience was absolutely silent. “Chest” was calm, similar to slow, shallow, meditative breathing, free of stress. Here, the piano remained gentle and passionate, even when threatened by unpleasant sounds that pop up in the score. “Nervous System,” however, was turbulent and stressed out, unsettling and dissonant, as if the muscles were tight. This all eventually gives way to harmony and clear roads, where the body just works and hums along. As the concerto concluded, McCarthy’s ice-clear playing gently faded out as the body goes on and on. The 28 minutes flew by.

photos courtesy of LA Phil

Elements and Energy with John Adams
Green Umbrella New Music Series
LA Phil
Walt Disney Concert Hall
reviewed on Tuesday, January 28, 2025