John Adams - The Chairman Dances (1985)

Composer: John Coolidge Adams (February 15, 1947 – ) Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony conducted by Simon Rattle My favorite work by John Adams, and just generally one of my favorites, this piece is an absolute masterpiece of orchestration. There is really so much to say about the timbral choices throughout this piece that I couldn’t possibly describe it all without rambling in this description box or writing a full report. So I’ll just highlight some parts that really stand out: The string harmonics at the beginning of the piece, particularly in combination with pitched percussion, creating such a bright excited feeling The grand legato theme in the horns at 3:53 evolving into a lovely string theme, totally in contrast with the rest of orchestra. Similarly at 9:18 Glissed string harmonics, clarinet runs, and percussion at 6:39 giving off a mischievous feeling, along with the string and woodwind runs at 7:46 8:14 everything here The sweet sound created by the 4 solo vi