John Adams: Harmonielehre, Part 3 // Sir Simon Rattle & London Symphony Orchestra

[@amadeus5889]

This piece of music is a dream come to life. Magical, mysterious, scary, and at the end, victorious.

[@ckeledjian]

This work is very important to me. For many years, contemporary music had become inaccessible, cold, experimental, and only played in small ensembles. The music was too focused on being different for the sake of being different. With Harmonielehre, a full circle has been closed. Take the experimental aspects of minimalism, but merge them with all what we have learned in hundreds of years of music. Finally, a contemporary work that moves us emotionally as well as intellectually, and is played boldly and virtuosistically by a big ensemble. I hated contemporary classical, until I found John Adams, and now I can't have enough of it.

[@alanmishael3405]

Exactly!

[@annandmartintravers5281]

Charles. You are absolutely right. It is the combination of novelty with old structure.

[@alihardie]

Absolutely!!🙌👏

[@KinkyLettuce]

Hey! that is the same story for A LOT of people in the academic environment The academic focuses too much on the exact kind of music you describe. Try Jennifer Higdon, Thomas Ades, Andrew Norman. These are phenomenal composers

[@Scriabin_fan]

@@KinkyLettuce i came here to recommend those composers, also add John Luther Adams, James MacMillan, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Guillaume Conesson to that list.

[@DGatsby]

One of the best pieces from the 20th century.

[@saladsalad9991]

loved this music in CIV 4 in the modern era; thanks Sid Meier, you greatly influenced my taste in music and did it through Civilization.

[@christian-andreaspistor2973]

Rythm Is It! Rattle/Adams. It's kind of metaphysics and I can't explain it. Overwhelming feelings. Highly explosive. Take care ❤ 🎼 🥁 🌈

[@orlandoavogadro]

holy shit, when the bassline was added i got huge shivers.

[@susiehenders]

👏👏 I swear this piece of music is alive! 👏👏

[@jerrera45]

It's like drifting through the cosmos.

[@benjaminniemczyk]

Even though this piece was written decades ago, Rattle, in the 90s, helped to bring it to the fore, at least in the US. His recording was the first I heard of this marvelous work.

[@AlecSievern]

And still the ultimate recording of the work

[@manolopresas4799]

Adams does it for me, every time, I'm tearing up, again!

[@jelanisurpriscomposer]

Omg same here 😭

[@sallyhayes9881]

P

[@dimitardodovski9949]

YES

[@SoaringTrumpet]

Same!

[@thomasanderson6879]

This is the greatest performance I have heard of one of the 20th Century's greatest compositions, a magnificent journey through starfields, nebulae and beyond. I'm in tears.

[@helmutweber7904]

Hervorragend! Höre ich mir immer wieder an!

[@wokehumanist958]

Having flashbacks to this music from when I was an early teen, plotting my friend's nuclear annihilation while playing Civ 4. Great music and it fit the game masterfully. It perfectly captured the sense of high stakes, mystery, and suspense of the "modern" era of the game.

[@cobblestonegenerator]

One of the best and most accessable composers of our time. Rattle+Adams= omg so good!

[@sergioazevedo7390]

A masterwork and a wonderful rendition of it, what else can we desire more from music?

[@cohaagenup]

Harmonielehre is my favorite piece of music ever. This rendition is fabulous. Impossible to hold the tears with that ending.

[@michaelford6100]

Love Harmonielehre and this is a stunning performance. I feel like I have heard stuff in it that I had missed before.

[@Peter-Warton]

That last 1/2 a second - that is how you play French horn. Damn!

[@mikebliss1835]

That last note. Chills. Every time.

[@edwinvanderkooij8713]

This music is from outer space !

[@JeremReutebuch]

This piece is absolutely stunning-and an incredible performance.

[@tommartin8700]

Sir Simon really gets with it if it's GENIUS!

[@AaronLington1]

If one follows the score, there is, at measures 244, 254, and 345, a marking that says "conductor will give a gesture to align all players"....the textures get so thick and rhythmically complex in those sections that even the most seasoned pros need a bit of help! ;)

[@extremeflext]

absolute perfection

[@AlecSievern]

So so good. No one performs this piece as well as Sir Simon Rattle!

[@ewtam24]

Bravo! This movement starts so delicate and ends so triumphant! Thank you, thank you, thank you for this beautiful performance of one of my favorite compositions by Adams.

[@Katyunnar]

This music is so beautiful, why is so hard to find this kind of music?

[@Mikhael_bureau]

Because the while the orchestration sound very modern, it still has the harmonic (chords progression) stability of neo-classic music. Classic music do not have evolved orchestration like this and a lot of modern music tent to be very academic and dissonant (contemporary music). So, you gonna find this kind of tone mostly in film music, (Harry-Potter 3 for exemple, or the work of Alexandre Desplat, etc).

[@anjoha59]

@@Mikhael_bureau There is no really clear chord progression here, there is however a diatonic palate which makes it easy to listen to for those who are not used to "atonal" music.

[@annandmartintravers5281]

A work of art where form combines,with an eloquence of expression. I can't get my fingers aroubdx this

[@rahulgohilcomposer]

The title of this work is actually an ironic nose-thumb at Arnold Schoenberg’s book on the theory of harmony ‘Harmonielehre’, after reading the book Adams writes a piece that directly contrasts Schoenberg’s school of thought on atonalism and embraces tonality completely

[@scottr.looney1774]

well, that's not quite right - although the English version of Harmonielehre was published in 1922 when he was fully into atonality, the book was actually written in 1910 and published in German in 1911. and the book itself is focused almost entirely on tonal harmony from Palestrina on up to Wagner/Brahms and Mahler, which Schoenberg was a complete master of (check out Gurrelieder (1901) or Pelleas und Melisande (1902/03)) before he abandoned it. it is true though that his music in 1910-1911 was just teetering on the cusp of atonality. but unlike his popular reputation as bomb-thrower to tonal harmony, he did not arrive at that position overnight.

[@barbarasmith6005]

Poor old Schoenberg. He gets dumped on so much. I learned and played his Op. 19 Six Little Pieces. Very mysterious and, dare I say, minimalist. Pre 12-tone system.

[@scottr.looney1774]

@@barbarasmith6005 i played them in college too - lovely pieces and quite forward thinking.

[@annandmartintravers5281]

Yes, it amazing. What structure and what lyricism.

[@GC-hy4mt]

Wow. Gorgeous!

[@txikilin]

The feeling of the Ocean.

[@ronenborshevsky8144]

Magnificent!

[@halbos7637]

New, different, yet so familiar. I really like this. 👍

[@08totillo]

Gracias LSO, Rattle, Adams

[@magdalenafilbrandt6833]

Gdy jestes szczęśliwy słyszysz muzykę....... gdy jestes smutny rozumiesz tekst..... Wspaniały charyzmatyczny maestro Simon Rattle. Kunszt-energia-poezja 👌❤❤👌👌❤❤🎶🎼🎵🎵

[@benpayne4663]

magnificent

[@axelx4770]

Superbe!

[@danieloduntan1983]

Wow.

[@ABBAAMMAtaratata]

Malheureusement pas assez connu et joue en France . Un des plus brillants auteurs contemporains

[@engelhardtunaeb6591]

Love it!

[@ЮрийГриценко-о4ф]

Прекрасно!

[@lightdarkness22]

изяшное волшебство

[@alfredoechevarrieta7512]

Agradecido LSO.

[@aj5231]

1:32 assistant principal cellist face for out of pitch cellos 😂😂

[@Jmay6901]

Wonderful performance! Adam’s orchestration exposes the Barbican’s acoustical inadequacy. Instead of hearing the marimbas above the orchestra, they are unfortunately drowned out. Compare this to the acoustics of Berlin Phil with Adams conducting.

[@matthewanderson6818]

This was considered bizarre and radical new music in the 80s. I went to a performance of it in Louisville in the late' 80s and the conductor felt it necessary to explain it to us first so we weren't too freaked out. This is like Shostakovich calling his Symphony #11 "The Year 1905" and then mocking the current Russian Dictators for an hour.

[@sircles-net]

Can this guy read my mind?

[@trevorw7901]

Why does the LSO allow KZbin adverts during the performance?

[@LondonSymphonyOrchestra]

Hi Trevor, thanks for spotting! We've changed this now :)

[@toptenganeshita]

Thanks! Eskerrik asko!

[@whatafreakinusername]

Musicians should have a click track for whenever they play this piece!

[@user-xj3hc2tq4k]

F###* Adorno and Frankfurt school. This guy is a genius.

[@christopherschneider7346]

Augen zu und durch....

[@Tamadehenzhan]

gut

[@JafuetTheSame]

gurrelieder-like opening probably intentional

[@francisbacon-moneygrabber9996]

Mit Orgasmusgarantie!

[@steveegallo3384]

Beautiful....Many thanks! (Is there no way to BLOCK "Ted" (the bot) below?

[@stephenpiper5604]

Surprisingly the McDonald's ad halfway through pretty much killed the mood. Fuck me, is nothing sacred?

[@annandmartintravers5281]

Yes, I think I met you there but my memory is,going so perhaps it was,you or someone else. Quit said. Wer Weiss.

[@francoismagne5863]

I always feel a bit conflicted when hearing this music. On one hand, it's really beautiful and deeply suggestive (the lyrical parts, at least), and I should be thankful it exists. On the other hand, I can't help noticing that the best parts are little more than a clever exploitation of musical tricks invented by Wagner 170 years ago. So while I'm happy to see a modern composer who dares turn his back on the atonal BS, I still wish we could hear something more personal from him.

[@gopher7691]

Schoenberg did this 120 years ago in Guerre Lieder

[@toddlevin]

and not nearly as well

[@gopher7691]

@@toddlevin what! Guerrero Linder is a master piece

[@gopher7691]

Guerre lieder

[@SpringBeeLH]

Steven Pinker?

[@gopher7691]

Guerre lieder

[@charlesbarry971]

Sounds like mininalism

[@loudlong]

John Adams wrote beautiful music that destroys trumpet players. No understanding of how their instrument works.

[@KinkyLettuce]

at least he aint one of those composers that write with extended tecniques

[@JamesSmithYoutube]

Adams understands the instrument perfectly. He demands the trumpet do things that tax the player because the music intrinsically demands it compositionally and there is no other more efficient way to get the specific effect that he imagines. It's more about the player and instrument stepping up and not whinging.

[@loudlong]

@@JamesSmithKZbin Any trumpet player would tell you that the music suffers when the musician has to pinch and squeeze and conserve volume and compromise quality in order to get through his poorly written parts. Ignorant writing for the instrument that does a disservice to those who play it.

[@JamesSmithYoutube]

@@loudlong I think the truth here is that you're a pretty crappy trumpet player, as the brass players I've performed Adams' compositions with (multiple times in my career) have never - ever - not once - voiced such a complaint. The only thing I've heard from brass players (trumpet players specifically) are that his compositions are great fun to perform - challenging, yes - but challenging in a way they enjoy. Perhaps you should stick to performing advanced high school/moderate community college level music that makes far less demands on your limited technical abilities, and allow the big boys and girls to voice their own professional opinions on Adam's music - they who actually perform(ed) it.

[@loudlong]

@@JamesSmithKZbin I have actually performed Harmonium, along with other Adams pieces. I don't know what instrument you play, and I wouldn't presume to insult your playing without hearing you merely because I didn't like your opinion, because that would be rude. I'll just say that trumpet playing friends of mine in major U.S. orchestras have shared my sentiment about Adams' writing for the instrument. What orchestra do you play in? And what instrument? Based on your bitchy little mentality, I'm guessing clarinet or viola.

[@dario6253]

This is just brilliant.

[@jirtemoens3161]

It's such a beautiful composition, that it's just not respectfully that there are advertises through the video.. 🥲

[@WEEBLLOM]

You are watching this for free, you should be thankful that there are advertisements

[@Rovingrich555]

I think you can choose whether to have adverts in the middle of your upload or not. I'm offered the option when I upload videos at any rate. It would be better to have them at the beginning and end.