Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.John Adams’s stature as one of the most significant American composers of the past 50 years goes beyond just the considerable quality of works such as Harmonielehre, Nixon in China, and the Violin Concerto. He has been a mentor to many in the current generation of young composers, and a pervasive influence in showing how minimalist means could be used for romantic ends.This was displayed across two recent New York Philharmonic events: a subscription concert with Adams conducting at David Geffen Hall, and chamber music in the Philharmonic’s “Sound On” series at the Museum of Modern Art, with Adams curating the music and co-hosting with scholar Ara Guzelimian. Adams had music on both programmes, as did Gabriella Smith, a composer Adams has known since she was a teenager.His City Noir was the headline work with the orchestra, capping a night with Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, Smith’s Lost Coast cello concerto — in its New York premiere — and Aaron Copland’s Quiet City.Pärt’s composition represented Britten’s importance, as well as Pärt’s guilt over having only discovered Britten’s music not long before the English composer’s death. The Philharmonic’s string section has been better than ever this season, and it was marvellous to hear Pärt’s cascading lines played with such robust intonation.Smith was inspired by hiking the rugged California coast, and she meant to celebrate landscape and condemn what she called the “criminal inaction of our leaders” on climate change, all via her her friendship with the soloist, cellist Gabriel Cabezas. The music had Cabezas making swirling effects with the bow and playing the strings with a mallet, all fascinating, complex sounds. Underneath these, however, Lost Cost was conventional. It felt part of the limited ambition of most contemporary American classical music. The gestures didn’t communicate much.Quiet City, with gorgeous solos from Ryan Roberts and Christopher Martin on the English horn and trumpet, gave the listener plenty to feel, but City Noir, with saxophone soloist Timothy McAllister, was like a long soundtrack to a movie about film noir soundtracks. It was impossible not to wonder why Adams didn’t choose his powerful orchestral piece, El Dorado, which expresses palpable outrage over environmental abuse.On Sunday, Adams programmed music from composers he finds most exciting in the new generation, performed by musicians from the New York Philharmonic. There were amiable but shambolic introductions from Adams, Guzelimian, and all the composers save for the absent Andrew Norman.Two mechanical excerpts from Adams’s John’s Book of Alleged Dances for string quartet and prerecorded prepared piano opened the performances. Anthony Cheung’s solo flute piece, pulsate, fixate, was surprisingly underdone for this composer, and the performance sounded anxious. Norman’s solo violin étude, For Chad, was a fine example of how he disassembles and rebuilds standard forms so they sound both familiar and unexpected.Smith’s Maré was again sleek and conventional. The highlight was Dylan Mattingly’s Sunt Lacrimae Rerum for two pianos and two harps, tuned in microtones from each other. In the style of gamelan music, it had a ringing, earthy sound, each close interval bounding from the others. Stunning, beautiful, it tried to capture some experience of living, which made it complex and satisfying.★★★☆☆nyphil.org
