""Short Ride in a Fast Machine," one of Adams' most frequently performed orchestral pieces, explodes with rhythmic energy under Alsop's baton. "Shaker Loops," too, surges with the forward drive of the composer's chugging rhythms and repetitive motifs. Adams' introspective side is represented in the calming stillness of "Berceuse elegiaque" and the lyrical setting of Walt Whitman's "The Wound Dresser," a profoundly moving poem beautifully sung by baritone Gunn. Although the strings of the Bourmenouth Symphony Orchestra sound thin, the ensemble is sparked by the performances of an excellent concertmaster and fine principal players"

--Review by Wilma Salisbury, Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 16, 2005

WHEN several major American orchestras found themselves simultaneously looking for music directors some years back, the name of the American conductor Marin Alsop was noticeably missing from the shortlists. Though Ms. Alsop had long been hailed as a dynamic conductor with an adventurous spirit and a palpable connection to the music of her time, and though she had achieved excellent results as the head of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, you suspected that the tradition-bound major orchestras were simply not ready to take the step of appointing a woman as music director. But overseas, the respected Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was. In 2002 Ms. Alsop became its music director: the first woman to head any major British orchestra. Today, things could not be going better in Bournemouth. The orchestra sounds great, the players are energized, and the recordings they have been making for Naxos are exciting, including this impressive program.

The breathless performance of "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" vibrantly conveys the quality of John Adams's music that the conductor Simon Rattle has likened to "a light aircraft, flying rather fast and close to the ground." The accounts of the wistful "Berceuse Élégiaque" and the ecstatic "Shaker Loops," a de facto four-movement symphony, are incisive and bracing.

Best of all, perhaps, is Ms. Alsop's intense yet magisterial performance of "The Wound-Dresser," a sensitive setting of Walt Whitman's poetic remembrance of serving as a nurse during the Civil War. The soloist is the fine American baritone Nathan Gunn, whose warm and virile voice provides comfort as you contemplate Whitman's heartbreaking words.

This album makes me eager to hear Ms. Alsop's recordings of the complete Brahms symphonies, due from Naxos this year. It's about time she is given a chance to show what she can do in repertory staples.

--Review by Anthony Tommasini, Sunday NYTimes January 2, 2005

"This excellent disc gives the listener a welcome chance to get a feeling for the way John Adams’ music evolved over a period of ten years. Crucially, this decade saw the conception and completion of his first opera, ‘Nixon in China’, an experience which had a profound effect on his musical language.

Shaker Loops finds Adams emerging from the shadow of Steve Reich. It is a typically ingenious blend of minimalism and New England energy – even to the punning title, which plays on a musical term for trills, ‘shakes’, and the early religious sect known as the Shakers. The result is a small masterpiece for string orchestra, and as so often with Adams, it is the surprise with which one finds oneself reminded of other not obviously related composers that is a major part of the fascination of the music. The opening, for example, calls to my mind the buzzing strings of Sibelius, e.g. in the finale of the 5th Symphony. Later, the harmonics which proliferate like icicles in the texture of this movement are a magical touch. The strings of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra play superbly.

The cantata The Wound Dresser on track 2 is, for me, a more problematic piece. It is beautifully and sensitively performed by the baritone Nathan Gunn, but I worry about Adams’ choice of text. It is taken from a poem by Walt Whitman, and records that writer’s experiences as a nurse during the civil war. Whitman describes unflinchingly the terrible wounds he saw and treated; an example is "…from the stump of the arm, the amputated hand, I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter and blood…" – I’ll spare you more, but suffice it to say this is a very different Whitman from the one known to lovers of the Sea Symphony or Toward the Unknown Region of Vaughan Williams.

Does this kind of text really bear setting to music? I am not convinced, though I would not for one moment doubt Adams’ deep sincerity or seriousness, and there is indeed a terrible beauty about this music, full of compassion as it is. A moving yet very uncomfortable experience – which may well be precisely what the composer intended.

As so often with these Naxos compilations, the programming of the music is a thing of elegance in itself, so that the piece that follows gently lifts the deep gloom of The Wound-Dresser. This is Adams lovely arrangement of Busoni’s Berceuse élégiaque, a lullaby-like piano piece, which Adams has set in such a way as to emphasise its strange dream-like quality. Again beautifully performed by Marin Alsop and her forces. (A surprising omission is that the liner notes don’t even mention this piece).

The disc opens with arguably Adams’ most celebrated work, Short Ride in a Fast Machine. The performers give this a crisp rhythmic lift-off, and I suspect that, apart from anything else, this is probably the fastest performance on CD (please don’t write if I’m wrong!) The textures are certainly admirably clear, with the advantage that one can hear that wood-block tapping away the whole time, so vital if one is to enjoy the constant regrouping over the basic pulse. And, for the first time, I relished the change at the half-way stage to a deeper toned wood-block – from ‘tick-tick’ to ‘tock-tock’ as it were. Such a simple touch, but strangely thrilling.

A disc to prize for Adams’ growing cohorts of admirers, and an ideal introduction for the curious."

--Review by Gwyn Parry-Jones, Musicweb, December 13, 2004

"John Adams, the holy spirit of the trinity of minimalist composers that includes Philip Glass and Steve Reich is a truly American phenomenon. He grew up in high society New England, received an Ivy League education, and then, at the tail-end of the hippie generation, headed west for San Francisco to escape his upbringing and find his own voice. Find it he did, for his is one of the most original voices in modern music, and his form of minimalism has gone well beyond the clichéd style of his two famous colleagues to evolve into something fresh and intelligent not often heard in contemporary music.

In this collection of orchestral works Marin Alsop proves once again that she is one of the leading conductors in the world. She is the first to get beyond the regrettably novel moniker of "woman conductor" to take a rightful place in the pantheon of simply "fine musicians." She leads the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra here with clarity and precision, gaining from them a taut sense of rhythm and ensemble, and ravishing string colors.

Opening with Short Ride in a Fast Machine, we are off to the races with the type of energetic, forward-moving music that is the signature trait of Mr. Adams. Set over a wood block ostinato, this piece is compelling in its thrust and appreciable for its well-calculated brevity. Unlike some of his colleagues (ahem, Mr. Glass) Adams knows when to shut up, and does so to blindingly good effect.

Up next is the splendid Wound Dresser, set for baritone solo and orchestra, to texts adapted from Walt Whitman. Whitman was a nurse during the Civil War, and some of his poetry that relates his wartime experiences can be excruciating. Here, Adams adapts passages from Whitman to make for an achingly melancholy portrait of the horrors of war, and in particular a war before modern medicine. The texts are graphic, and sometimes disturbing, and the unrelenting sadness of the vocal line and the calm accompaniment from the orchestra can at times be quite emotionally taxing. I dare say that this is one of the best war pieces, and definitely one of the best settings of Whitman since Ned Rorem’s War Scenes of 1969. Nathan Gunn is superb both as a singer, whose tone is gorgeous and rich, but also as a communicator, whose enunciation is impeccable and his sincerity of delivery is spellbinding.

The Berceuse élégiaque is a lovely and haunting work. It is proof again that Adams is capable of reaching beyond the box of "minimalism" to deliver a convincing, original work while never really abandoning his trademark compositional devices.

The major piece in this program is the twenty-six minute Shaker Loops, which is very much a symphony and a tone poem rolled into one. Adams intertwines several concepts, namely, a literal gesture of shaking, a looping or repeating of a musical event in homage to electronic composition, and the habits and ceremonies of the Shaker religious sect. In sum, it makes for very convincing listening. Adams has created a sound portrait that spans epochs and lifestyles, modernity and age-old tradition, and the classical and avant-garde to create a very successful work of art.

The Bournemouth play to perfection, and as evidenced by this recording, we have a great deal to which to look forward from this superb American conductor. Sound quality is outstanding, notes by Daniel Felsenfeld are concise and well constructed, texts are included; my goodness for what more could you ask? Highly recommended on all fronts."

--Review by Kevin Sutton, Musicweb, December 6, 2004

"The Wound-Dresser, a much darker (and slower) setting of Walt Whitman, is excellently sung by Nathan Gunn, with fine solo trumpet-playing from the orchestra."

--Review by Malcolm Hayes, Classic FM Magazine, December 2004

"Give your equipment an early Christmas present with an outrageously brilliant orchestral showpiece taking a ride on a very fast Bournemouth Symphony with their superb conductor, Marin Alsop."

--Review by David Denton, Yorkshire Post, December 11, 2004

"All in all, this vividly recorded, inexpensive disc should make a compelling introduction to Adams' music."

--Review by Andrew Farach-Colton, Gramophone, November 2004

"She [Alsop] coaxes superb playing out of the Bournemouth strings in Shaker Loops."

--Review by Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine, December 2004

"Alsop's interpretations and her Bournemouth orchestra's playing are every bit the equal of those on the continuing Nonesuch series of recordings. Nathan Gunn is a sensitive and moving exponent of Walt Whitman's Civil War memories in The Wound Dresser , and its plangent, slow-moving orchestral tapestry is beautifully woven by Alsop."

--Review by Matthew Rye, The Telegraph, November 20, 2004

"Having already given us several excellent discs of Samuel Barber for Naxos, Marin Alsop now turns her attention to the music of another fellow American, John Adams.

How does one define Adams? In his liner note Daniel Felsenfeld states that Adams "has earned his place in the mighty triumvirate of American Minimalist composers alongside Philip Glass and Steve Reich." If one takes that statement at face value I would respectfully have to disagree. I mean no slight on either Glass or Reich; though Adams’ music speaks much more powerfully to me than does theirs, but that’s a subjective preference. Adams has gone way beyond minimalism and in the process has become a much richer composer (not in the monetary sense) and a much more interesting and communicative one. In his recent Penguin Companion to Classical Music Paul Griffiths describes Adams brilliantly as "a post-minimalist master of exuberance and intricacy." The adroitly-chosen programme of this CD gives us a glimpse of some of the stages on Adams’ evolutionary journey from minimalist beginnings.

The earliest piece, where minimalist influences are at their strongest, is Shaker Loops. As Mr. Felsenfeld points out, this work started off as a string quartet with the title Wavemaker. In this form it was withdrawn after a single performance. What is not mentioned in the note is Adams’ subsequent revision of the score into a string septet (3 violins, 1 viola, 2 cellos and a bass). This is the 1977 ‘edition’ which remains a completely valid version. What we have here is the 1983 re-working of the piece for full string orchestra, the form in which I strongly suspect it is most frequently heard nowadays.

Ms Alsop leads a quite splendid performance. The athletic, at times pounding "shaking" of the first section is very well done. I love Mr. Felsenfeld’s description of this section as "fast and wildly caffeinated." The eerie atmosphere of the second, more subdued episode is delivered very well and Ms Alsop also responds very acutely to the more serious introspection of the third part. The final section brings the work full circle with a revisiting of the idea, if not the material, of the opening "shaking." This very fine reading stands up very well in comparison with the composer’s own superb recording (on Nonesuch) though not even Alsop can match the truly formidable climax that Adams achieves in the third section just before the link into the final section.

Chronologically, the next work in the programme is A Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Adams has said of the title of the work: "You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn’t?" Well, Marin Alsop has the top down and her foot firmly to the floor in this exhilarating reading of what is a tremendous showpiece. The recorded sound here is bright and in your face, very appropriately. The performance matches in quality the pioneering account by Edo de Waart and the San Francisco Symphony (Nonesuch) although the Nonesuch recording managed to combine brightness with just a little more bass depth than the Naxos engineers achieve. However, it’s a marvellous reading nonetheless and makes an ear-catching opening to the CD.

The Wound Dresser is one of Adams’ masterpieces. It’s a setting of part of a poem by Walt Whitman in which the poet describes his experiences as a nurse during the American Civil War. The text is pretty uncompromising and is not for the squeamish. I’m not certain what motivated Adams to write the piece. There’s been a lot of speculation that it is a response to the AIDS crisis. In the notes accompanying the composer’s own recording of the work the annotator points out that at the time of composition Adams’ mother was tending his father who was dying of Alzheimer’s disease. And, of course, the work may also be inspired by a revulsion against violence. Whatever the inspiration, the music is deeply eloquent and moving. Mr. Felsenfeld rightly notes that Adams employs "admirable restraint". It’s a trait that I‘ve remarked on, before reading this comment, in reviewing recently Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls. It’s not all restrained. There’s a searing passage, featuring manic bugle calls between 11’00" and about 12’30" at the words "I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep". But for the most part the music is sombre and excess is tellingly avoided. The piece is, effectively, a soliloquy for baritone and orchestra.

In Nathan Gunn we have a superb soloist. The dignity and compassion of his singing suit the music to perfection. He has a rich, full tone and he employs just the right amount of vibrato. His diction is excellent. He is given first rate support by Marin Alsop and her Bournemouth players. The poignancy and passion of such passages as "Come, sweet death!" (8’46") and "some are so young, some suffer so much" (16’46") are beautifully delivered. There’s strong competition from Sanford Sylvan, for whom the work was conceived, singing with the composer conducting (Nonesuch). Sylvan has a lighter, slightly more forward baritone which some may feel suits the music even better. Personally, I wouldn’t be without either version. This is a masterly score and this newcomer is fully worthy of the quality of the music.

One word of warning. Naxos print the text of The Wound Dresser. Inexplicably, however, they’ve missed out the first stanza (nine lines). However, Gunn’s diction is so good that I don’t see this being a major inconvenience.

Oddly, the most recent work on the disc isn’t even mentioned in the notes. This is Adams’ arrangement for chamber orchestra of an orchestral work by Busoni. The original, his Op. 42, dates from 1909 and its full title is Berceuse élégiaque (des Mannes Wiegenlied am Sarge seiner Mutter) or Cradle Song (of the Man at his Mother’s Coffin). Here again, perhaps, we see evidence of Adams’ restraint in the face of suffering in that this sombre but subdued piece by Busoni clearly exerted a strong appeal to him. In a note accompanying his own 1995 recording Adams commented that the work is "of the most hushed intimacy. Here the cradle rocks with barely perceptible movement while the musical ‘narrator’ sings a song of dolorous, resigned sorrow." Adams’ own recording is very fine but by a short head I prefer Alsop’s version. The Adams performance is recorded a bit more closely and, dare I suggest it, perhaps Alsop exerts even more control over the dynamic range. In any event it is she that best conveys the "hushed intimacy". The Berceuse is a splendid homage by one composer to another and Naxos have very sensibly ordered the CD so that this work follows The Wound Dresser to which it is a most effective foil. Incidentally, in the heading to this review I’ve given the composition date as stated on the CD packaging. However, the documentation accompanying the Adams recording states that the Berceuse was first performed in November 1990 so I suspect that date may be the correct one.

All of Marin Alsop’s discs that I’ve heard to date have impressed me but I fancy that this disc may be her most important achievement to date in the studio. Quite apart from the excellence of the performances, all given good recorded sound, this CD offers an ideal and very inexpensive introduction to the music of one of the most interesting and stimulating composers currently before the public. For the newcomer to Adams’ music this is well-nigh ideal. Those who are already enthusiasts for his music should also add it to their collection, even if this involves duplication, for it is a top quality release. Urgently recommended."

--Review by John Quinn, MusicWweb, October 2004