John Adams goes for a ride

Synopsis

"You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn't?" That's how the American composer John Adams described his orchestral miniature "Short Ride in a Fast Machine," which received its premiere on today's date by the Pittsburgh Symphony at the 1986 Great Woods Festivals in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Since then, Adam's "Short Ride" has had a "long run"—it now ranks as one of the most-frequently performed of all contemporary American orchestra pieces.

From 1979 until 1985, Adams served as the San Francisco Symphony's first Composer-in-Residence. In notes for a Symphony program, the late Michael Steinberg had these comments about Adams' "ride."

"'Short Ride in a Fast Machine' begins with a marking of quarter notes (woodblock, soon joined by the four trumpets) and eighths (clarinets and synthesizers); the woodblock is fortissimo and the other instruments play forte. Adams describes the woodblock's persistence as 'almost sadistic' and thinks of the rest of the orchestra as running the gauntlet through that rhythmic tunnel."

Another commentator suggested that "this music is like a roller coaster that just goes fast as the dickens. It's also hair-raisingly difficult to play."

The composer determined the tone of the four-minute piece when he marked at the beginning of the work "Delirando," which means "delirious."

Music Played in Today's Program

John Adams (b. 1947) Short Ride in a Fast Machine San Francisco Symphony; Edo de Waart, cond. Nonesuch 79453

On This Day

Births

• 1761 - Czech composer and violinist Anton (Antonín) Wranitzky (Vranický, Wraniczky, Wranizky), in Nova Rise, Moravia; He studied with Haydn and Mozart in Vienna and was a friend of Beethoven;

• 1766 - Austrian composer and pianist Anton Eberl; Some of his works were mistakenly (or perhaps deliberately) published as Mozart's;

• 1899 - Mexican composer and conductor Carlos Chávez, in Calzada de Tacuba, near Mexico City;

Deaths

• 1962 - English composer and conductor Sir Eugene Goosens, age 69, in Hillingdon;

• 2002 - American composer and conductor Ralph Shapey, age 81, in Chicago;

• 2005 - American composer David Diamond, age 89;

Premieres

• 1784 - Mozart: Piano & Winds Quintet (K. 452), Sonata for Two Pianos (K. 448), and the Piano Concerto No. 17 (K. 453), at the home of Mozart's pupil, Barbara Ployer, outside Vienna; The Piano Concerto may have been premiered earlier that year on April 29, at a concert given by Mozart at Vienna's Kärtnertor Theater in the presence of Emperor Joseph II;

• 1855 - Verdi: opera "Les Vêspres Siciliennes" (The Sicilian Vespers), in Paris at the Grand Opéra;

• 1911 - Stravinsky: ballet "Petrushka," in Paris at the Théatre du Châtelet, with Pierre Monteux conducting;

• 1923 - Walton: "Façade," in London, with Dame Edith Sitwell reciting her poems, the composer conducting;

• 1923 - Stravinsky: "Les Noces," at the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris;

• 1942 - Honegger: opera "Joan of Arc at the Stake" (first staged production), in Zürich at the Stadttheater; This work was premiered in a concert performance in Basel on May 12, 1938;

• 1967 - David Ward-Steinman: Cello Concerto, in Toyko, by the Japan Philharmonic conducted by Milton Katims, with Edgar Lustgarten the soloist;

• 1986 - John Adams: "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" at Great Woods, Mansfield, Mass., with Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

• 1999 - first staging in Germany of the original German version of Kurt Weill’s opera "Der Weg der Verheissung" (The Eternal Road), in Chemnitz, Germany, with John Mauceri conducting; The English-language premiere staging had occurred at the Manhattan Opera House in New York City on January 7, 1937, in a production staged by Max Reinhardt that ran for 153 performances;