John Adams' My Father Knew Charles Ives was premiered in 2003 by the San Francisco Symphony. Perhaps it was the fact that the work followed on Adams' grim September 11 memorial, On the Transmigration of Souls, but for whatever reason, it brought out some of the composer's puckish sense of humor, which here and elsewhere is an important strand of his musical makeup. Adams' father did not know Charles Ives, but Adams imagined that they had a good deal in common, and that was a springboard to a work that is unlike any other ...
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John Adams' My Father Knew Charles Ives was premiered in 2003 by the San Francisco Symphony. Perhaps it was the fact that the work followed on Adams' grim September 11 memorial, On the Transmigration of Souls, but for whatever reason, it brought out some of the composer's puckish sense of humor, which here and elsewhere is an important strand of his musical makeup. Adams' father did not know Charles Ives, but Adams imagined that they had a good deal in common, and that was a springboard to a work that is unlike any other among Adams' output. It's not at all clear why My Father Knew Charles Ives has been so neglected. The composer advocated for it and conducted the only other recording, and it would be an ideal inclusion in a program devoted to Ives, for Adams artfully weaves the language of Three Places in New England into his own, with long brass lines unfolding over wind-and-string landscapes. The work gets a detailed, sympathetic treatment here from Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony...
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