Adams: Road Movies

Adams: Road Movies

1	Road Movies, for violin & / Leila Josefowicz
2	Road Movies, for violin & / Leila Josefowicz
3	Road Movies, for violin & / Leila Josefowicz
4	Hallelujah Junction, for / Rolf Hind
5	Hallelujah Junction, for / Rolf Hind
6	Hallelujah Junction, for / Rolf Hind
7	China Gates, for piano / Nicolas Hodges
8	American Berserk, for pia / Nicolas Hodges
9	Phrygian Gates, for piano / Rolf Hind
10	Phrygian Gates, for piano / Rolf Hind
11	Phrygian Gates, for piano / Rolf Hind
Adams: Road Movies
1.	Road Movies, for violin & piano 15:32
	Composed by John Adams
	Performed by John Novacek, John Novacek, Rolf Hind, Leila Josefowicz and Nicolas Hodges
2.	Hallelujah Junction, for 2 pianos 16:28
	Composed by John Adams
	Performed by John Novacek, Rolf Hind, Leila Josefowicz and Nicolas Hodges
3.	China Gates, for piano 4:34
	Composed by John Adams
	Performed by John Novacek, Rolf Hind, Leila Josefowicz and Nicolas Hodges
4.	American Berserk, for piano 6:08
	Composed by John Adams
	Performed by John Novacek, Rolf Hind, Leila Josefowicz and Nicolas Hodges
5.	Phrygian Gates, for piano 25:16
	Composed by John Adams
	Performed by John Novacek, Rolf Hind, Leila Josefowicz and Nicolas Hodges

Barnes & Noble

Nowadays, John Adams isn't known primarily for his chamber music, yet Road Movies, a three-movement composition for piano and violin, is just that. The prominent composer of operas such as The Death of Klinghoffer and large-scale orchestral works like Naïve and Sentimental Music, Adams shows his skill in the more intimate setting of the 1995 piece with striking results. Adams writes: "Road Movies is travel music, music that is comfortably settled in a pulse groove and passes through harmonic and textural regions as one would pass through a landscape on a car trip." That in mind, the opening movement, with its mix of bustling rhythms, fragmented melodies, and bright tonality, comes alive in the imagination, fostered by violinist Leila Josefowicz and pianist John Novacek's incisive and skillful performance. The pace slows in the meditative, though equally redolent, middle movement but gives way to an animated perpetual-motion finale, playfully marked "40% Swing." The disc is filled out with an assortment of Adams's works for piano, from the recent American Beserk (2001) and the two-piano Hallelujah Junction (1996) to a pair of pieces from 1977 -- China Gates and Phrygian Gates -- in which Adams first adopted the minimalist style. Pianists Nicolas Hodges and Rolf Hind bring each to pulsating life, offering a valuable collection of the early-on and the up-to-date from this leading voice in new music. Nonesuch's sound is spacious and clear. EJ Johnson

All Music Guide

Composer John Adams' album Road Movies contains five pieces that Adams' considers "travel music, (...) passing through harmonic and textural regions as one would pass through on a car trip." Indeed, during Leila Josefowicz's spirited and appropriately brusque reading of the "40% Swing" movement from the title work, one hears what sounds like a passing auto in the left channel. Is it mere coincidence or the album concept channeling onto the master tape?

Three of the pieces here appear on recordings for the first time, "Road Movies for violin and piano" (1995), "Hallelujah Junction for two pianos," and "American Berserk for piano" (2001). The balance is given to the already familiar "China Gates" and "Phrygian Gates" played by pianists Nicolas Hodges and Rolf Hind, respectively, who join forces in the four-hand work. Actually, it's been a long time since there was a whole disc made up of chamber and/or keyboard works from Adams, who has been concentrating on orchestral music and pieces for ensembles. As such, this is a real treat -- the playing is expert on all counts, and the newer pieces sit comfortably side by side with the older ones, which are given a fresh perspective in these new recordings. While it may not be the album that never leaves your car stereo -- "American Berserk" is raucous enough that it could prove quite distracting during a traffic jam -- Road Movies is an immensely enjoyable collection that never runs out of gas. Uncle Dave Lewis

New York Times

The performances -- particularly Leila Josefowicz's reading of the violin line in "Road Movies," Nicolas Hodges's fire-breathing "American Berserk" and Rolf Hinds's dramatic, sharply accented "Phrygian Gates" -- offer a balance of muscle and heart that is perfect for Mr. Adams's punchy but meticulous scoring. Allan Kozinn