The worlds of classical music and computers collided as composer Samuel Carl Adams debuts his stellar work performed by the San Francisco Symphony on Friday September 28 at Davies Symphony Hall.
The son of famed American composer John Adams, Samuel Adams has had a long standing connection with the San Francisco Symphony. His father John Adams met his mother photographer Deborah O'Grady met when they were both working with the orchestra.
The younger Adams who lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn returned to San Francisco to oversee his master class "Drift and Providence," conducted by the Golden State based orchestra and composer Michael Tilson Thomas in an evening heavily swayed by the work Mahler's Fifth Symphony.
The night however was spiced by Samuel Adams new composition. Adams work is divided into five sections in which he calls three "imagined places." "Embarcadero, "a neighbourhood in San Francisco and "Divisadero," a street, two sections entitled "Drift I" and Drift II." The concluding element is a piece Adams calls "Providence."
"Mr. Thomas and the San Francisco players gave a vividly colored, taut and organic performance," said NY Times. The San Francisco Symphony and Thomas were enhanced by the sounds effects and additions emitting from all things Samuel Adams Laptop. Moments in the performance like Adams' "Embarcadero," were lend to by noises such as scraping cowbells and brake drums.
Thomas also had to deliver the 20 minute titan Mahler's Fifth Symphony described once to an audience as a "voyage of discovery in sound."
The conductor and the San Francisco Symphony have made Mahler one of their marquee acts so it was not a surprise that conductor and orchestra masterfully tip toed through a wonderfully composed piece and left those in attendance satisfied on the night.
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