Earth and the Great Weather is a radical departure from the choral work with which
John Luther Adams first made his name. Here, over orchestration of strings and percussion, five narrators recite the text, an impressionistic portrait of the Arctic landscape. The narrative voices, frequently overlapping, present the text in English, Latin, and two Native American languages.
Adams sets his narration over graceful string passages, which he punctuates with harsh, bracing percussion trios. It's beautiful work, but
Adams here still doesn't seem to be entirely his own man.
Earth and the Great Weather recalls the operas of
Robert Ashley far too closely, much as his previous major work, "The Far Country of Sleep," bears much too close a resemblance to the choral works of
Morton Feldman. The problem of all-too-obvious influences aside, however,
Earth and the Great Weather is well worth a serious listen. ~ Peter Nappi