
"A dreamlike thrill"
Víkingur Ólafsson plays the European premiere of "After the Fall".
The world premiere of John Adams' new piano concerto "After the Fall" took place in San Francisco last week, and the enthusiasm was great. The work is a "dreamlike thrill", wrote the reviewer for KQED. Some of Adam's music is almost reminiscent of film music and is "full of fantasy - fields, flights, turbulence, chases, heartbeats". His preference (and talent) for jazz also comes into play.
Víkingur Ólafsson, our focus artist this year, was also the soloist at the piano in San Francisco and is now playing the Swiss (and European) premiere of the work under the direction of Paavo Järvi. The fact that this can take place in Zurich has to do with the fact that our orchestra is one of the composer's patrons: promoting new repertoire and extending the tradition into the present in a compositionally and interpretatively high-calibre manner is one of the most beautiful tasks that a classical symphony orchestra can take on.
In this case, the orchestra and Paavo Järvi have been familiar with Adams' music for some time. The composer himself conducted a concert in spring 2022 and various recordings have been immortalised on CD. The "Naive and Sentimental Music" is also available as a concert recording. We present it here once again - to heighten anticipation for the latest coup with "After the Fall".
We use deepL.com for our translations into English.
