John Adams - Century Rolls

John Adams (b. 1947)

Century Rolls

Emanuel Ax, piano

5 tracks; 50 minutes

Century Rolls, for piano and orchestra (1997)

Lollapalooza, for orchestra (1995)

Slonimsky's Earbox, for orchestra (1996)

Century Rolls is a piano concerto composed by John Adams for Emmanuel Ax. It is, in my opinion, one of the best piano concertos of the second part of the 20th century. It goes from an incredibly muscular and thumping first movement to the most delicate slow movement back to a rampage through the piano in the third movement. It's really incredible and everyone needs to hear it.

The orchestral piece Lollapalooza is incredibly fun. It's built on the rhythm of the word "Lollapalooza" with a great motive in the low brass (c-c-c-long e-flat-c) and amazingly intricate asymmetrical rhythmic patterns thrown around the rest of the orchestra. It's funky rhythms and syncopation will crack all of your rhythmic pre-conceptions!

"Slonimsky's Earbox" is an orchestral work celebrating the work of musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, who compiled an essential Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, which has served as a foundation for a lot of modern music. This Adams' way of recognizing Slonimsky, using a lot of the patterns found in his thesaurus with his usual rhythmic drive and intensity.

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