John Adams & Víkingur Ólafsson

About

Inspired by the self-playing pianos of the early 1920s, John Adams’ Century Rolls imitates the machine-like chirping and precise, continuous motion of player pianos. Pulsating woodwinds, pizzicato strings, flashes of brass, and metallic percussion accompany the piano as it “moves in and out of precipitous situations with the ease of a roadrunner,” Adams says. “[T]he casual listener will be able to detect homages to Fats Waller, Gershwin, Zez Confrey, and even to Ravel and Debussy, all of whom shared the experience of hearing their music transformed by the medium of the piano roll.” When Conrad Tao performed Adams’ concerto in 2023, Cleveland’s Plain Dealer called him “an animated pianist…

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