Grand Pianola Music

“The piece could only have been conceived by someone who had grown up surrounded by the detritus of mid-20th century recorded music. Beethoven and Rachmaninoff soak in the same warm bath with Liberace, Wagner, the Supremes, Charles Ives, and John Philip Sousa.” This is how composer John Adams describes his Grand Pianola Music, and that goes a long way to describing this extravagant, tonal work, especially its over-the-top final movement. There are officially only two movements, but the first one has both a fast and a slow section, so in essence there are three movements altogether. When Adams goes on to describe the final section as a “bombastic finale…with its flag-waving, gaudy tune rocking back and forth between the pianos amid ever-increasing cascades of B-flat major arpeggios,” he is not kidding. There are, at minimum, two ways to enjoy this piece. The first is as a witness to one of the great crescendo creators of our time; Adams has a remarkable knack for building tension over a long span, using every trick in his playbook. The other way is to give in to the spirit of fun in which it was clearly written. Don’t be surprised if you’re humming that “gaudy tune” long after it’s over.

Grand Pianola Music, at the time of its premiere, was a celebration of tonality that dared to turn its back on the dry and brittle atonality of the academic music world. The work itself was inspired by a dream of the composer’s in which, while driving on a California highway, two huge black limousines morph into grand pianos.

The images embedded in this performance explore that California dream in landscapes of both beauty and peril. Redwoods. Stately, gathering the moisture of coastal fog, home to myriad creatures, threatened by logging and fire. Wind turbines. Providing electricity as an alternative to fossil fuel, turning in perpetual motion as the wheels on the limousines turned, propelling the music forward in time. The Mojave Desert. With its ever-receding horizon, sheltering and supporting a wide array of life, supported by an underground aquifer that may very well be drained to provide water for our ever-growing cities. And finally, the emerald hills of Sonoma County, dotted with cattle, home to flocks of soaring birds, lifting the souls of drivers along its many back roads.

Grand Pianola Music’s aural journey, through its dazzling landscapes, at times quiet and pastoral, at times explosive with energy and wit, drew me to these particular locations and images. The moist green season between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox reflect these many moods and seems especially appropriate to visualize the joy, the movement, the sheer beauty that this music contains.