At All Times, One Must Look To The Future (As Well As To The Past) ... New Music In Quasi-Ancient Urban Centers

ENCOUNTERS: A JOHN ADAMS SNAPSHOT

Post-Classical Ensemble

April 22, 2009, 7:30pm
The Harman Center for the Arts, Lansburgh Theater
450 7th St. NW. 202-547-1122

Benjamin Pasternack, piano
David Krakauer, clarinet
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor

John Adams: Phrygian Gates and Gnarly Buttons

Post-concert discussion with the artists. Joseph Horowitz, host

A rare opportunity for Washington regional audiences to hear two cutting-edge compositions by a leading American composer, performed for the first time by two great American instrumentalists: clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Benjamin Pasternack.

Krakauer, world-famous as a galvanizing Klezmer artist, has been described by the New York Times as “a combination of soulfulness and electrifying showiness.” Adams’ Gnarly Buttons is a sizzling clarinet concerto distilling swing, blues, and jazz. It registers Adams’ compositional roots “in a household where Benny Goodman and Mozart were not separated.”

Pasternack has been hailed in the Boston Globe for his “astonishing bravura and deeply inquisitive and distinctive musical mind.” Adams’ Phrygian Gates, which he performs, is a landmark of keyboard minimalism, a 30-minute kaleidoscope of swirling colors and textures.

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Photo credit: (c) Bogdan Krasel [sp?] 2009. All rights reserved.

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Aide Memoire:

In May 2009, composer Sofia Gubaidulina will be visiting Washington, D.C.