John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony, an all-instrumental work based on his 2005 opera, Doctor Atomic, is out now. Conductor David Robertson leads the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in first recordings of both Doctor Atomic Symphony and 2001's Guide to Strange Places. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls it "a pair of brilliant performances." The Guardian says the title piece has "captured in furious brass explosions and Adams's vivid orchestration," and the album "rewards repeated listening."
John Adams's latest Nonesuch release, Doctor Atomic Symphony, is out today. Adams based this all-instrumental work on his 2005 opera, Doctor Atomic, which chronicles the hours leading to the detonation of the first atomic bomb and received its Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera premieres this past season. The Symphony was first performed in August 2007 at Royal Albert Hall in London with the composer conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. For this album, conductor David Robertson leads the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in first recordings of both Doctor Atomic Symphony and Adams's 2001 piece Guide to Strange Places.
Sarah Bryan Miller, the classical music critic for the orchestra's hometown paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, writes: "David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra have a clear and shining affinity for the compositions of John Adams." It's the composer's "signature complexities" that the orchestra and its conductor are able to capture "in a pair of brilliant performances" on the new album. Read the review at stltoday.com.
The Guardian's Fiona Maddocks says of the album's title piece: "This three-movement symphony is an orchestral distillation of the opera, captured in furious brass explosions and Adams's vivid orchestration." She goes on to describe Guide to Strange Places as "pulsating yet haunting" and praises the album as a whole with being one that "rewards repeated listening." Read more at guardian.co.uk.
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