John Adams: Violin Concerto Leila Josefowicz, St. Louis Symphony & David Robertson

• John Adams (1947 - ): Violin Concerto:
• 1I. Quarter-note = 7814:45
• 2II. Chaconne: Body Through Which the Dream Flows10:58
• 3III. Toccare07:24
• Total Runtime33:07

Info for John Adams: Violin Concerto

A new recording of John Adams's Grawemeyer Award–winning Violin Concerto (1993) with his frequent collaborators violinist Leila Josefowicz, conductor David Robertson, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is due on April 27, 2018. The album was recorded at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis in 2016.

Adams's Violin Concerto was co-commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the New York City Ballet. It was described by the Boston Globe as having "the qualities of intelligence, craftsmanship, and quirkiness that have always marked the composer and his work; this time Adams also mingles virtuoso show with soul, popular appeal with the staying power that comes from intellectual interest." The premiere recording of the work, featuring violinist Gidon Kremer and the London Symphony Orchestra led by Kent Nagano, was released by Nonesuch in 1996.

Josefowicz said of the concerto in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "It was the piece where [Adams] first got to know me as a person and a player, when I was twenty-one. I'm now thirty-eight. When I started playing this piece, it was the confirmation of the new path that I was on, to really go down this new road with new music and with composers, because this experience was so inspiring for me." She further said, "It has a really dancelike feeling, so the violin line is often incredibly syncopated with everything else going on in the orchestra … Basically, it's supposed to make you groove."

Composer John Adams's works, spanning more than four decades, have entered the repertoire and are among the most performed of all contemporary classical music, among them Harmonielehre, Shaker Loops, Chamber Symphony, Doctor Atomic Symphony, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and his Violin Concerto. His stage works, all in collaboration with director Peter Sellars, include Nixon in China (1987), The Death of Klinghoffer (1991), El Niño (2000), Doctor Atomic (2005), A Flowering Tree (2006), and the Passion oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary (2012). In November 2017, Adams's new opera Girls of the Golden West, set during the 1850s California Gold Rush, received its world premiere at San Francisco Opera. The opera's libretto, assembled by Sellars, includes original Gold Rush song lyrics, letters, journal entries, and personal memoirs from the era. This new Violin Concerto album is Nonesuch's thirtieth recording of the works on John Adams, beginning with Harmonielehre in 1986.

Josefowicz, a MacArthur fellow, frequently works with leading international composers, orchestras, and conductors. Violin concertos have been written especially for her by John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Colin Matthews, and Steven Mackey. Recent highlights from Josefowicz's calendar include performances with the Chicago, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Melbourne symphonies; Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra; the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Gürzenich-Orchester Köln; Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich; Filarmonica della Scala; and the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester. Josefowicz's previous Nonesuch recordings are Adams's Scheherazade.2, also with Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Road Movies.

David Robertson celebrates his thirteenth and final season as Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), which was founded in 1880 and is the second-oldest orchestra in the U.S. During his tenure, Robertson has solidified the SLSO's standing as one of the nation's most vital and innovative ensembles. He is known as a champion of contemporary composers, as evidenced by the SLSO's strong association with John Adams. Robertson and the SLSO's Nonesuch recordings include Adams's City Noir and Saxophone Concerto (2014 Grammy Award), Doctor Atomic Symphony and Guide to Strange Places, and Scheherazade.2. Robertson has frequent projects with the top orchestras and operas houses, internationally.

Leila Josefowicz, violin
St. Louis Symphony
David Robertson, conductor

Leila Josefowicz
passionate advocacy of contemporary music for the violin is reflected in her diverse programmes and enthusiasm to perform new works. She frequently collaborates with leading composers and works with orchestras and conductors at the highest level around the world. In 2008 she was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, joining prominent scientists, writers and musicians who have made unique contributions to contemporary life.

Highlights of Josefowicz’s 2015/16 season include engagements with the London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and Sydney Symphony orchestras, the Orquesta Nacional de España, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, including on tour in Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck. In North America Josefowicz performs with The Cleveland and Toronto Symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, St Louis Symphony, and Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra. Josefowicz also appears in recital at New York’s Zankel Hall as well as in Berkeley and Denver.

Violin concertos have been written especially for Leila Josefowicz by composers including John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Colin Matthews and Steven Mackey. Scheherazade.2 (Dramatic Symphony for Violin and Orchestra) by Adams was given its world premiere by Josefowicz in March 2015 with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert. Luca Francesconi’s concerto Duende – The Dark Notes, also written for Josefowicz, was given its world premiere by her in 2014 with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki before being performed by Josefowicz, Mälkki and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms in July 2015.

Recent highlights include performances with the Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and Melbourne Symphony orchestras, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Filarmonica della Scala and the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester.

Josefowicz has released several recordings, notably for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips/Universal and Warner Classics and was featured on Touch Press’ acclaimed iPad app, The Orchestra. Her latest recording, Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2014.

Booklet for John Adams: Violin Concerto