Violinist Leila Josefowicz crystallizes her affinity for new music in her performance of “The Dharma At Big Sur,” conducted by its composer, John Adams. The National Symphony Orchestra concert, the second of the Kennedy Center series John Adams: Perspectives, also features his “Doctor Atomic Symphony,” along with Benjamin Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” from “Peter Grimes” and Igor Stravinsky’s “Feu D’artifice.”
Both Josefowicz and Adams are major contributors to 21st-century music. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for her advocacy and passionate commitment to contemporary music.
Adams, regarded as one of America’s most original composers, has produced both opera and symphonic scores that pique the senses. His operas “Nixon in China,” “The Death of Klinghoffer” and “Doctor Atomic” draw on contemporary individuals and events, while California’s rugged coastline is the focus of “The Dharma at Big Sur,” a reference to the teachings of the Buddha that Jack Kerouac and his fellow Beat poets incorporated into their writing.
His goal in composing it for the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles was to express the feelings of a newcomer to the Pacific Coast, as he had been four decades earlier, and to incorporate musical references from many different cultures. The final notes explode from the electric violin, illuminating the visual shock to the new arrival.
If you go
The John Adams: Perspectives series
Where: Kennedy Center Concert Hall
When: 1 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday
Info: $20 to $85; 202-467-4600; kennedy-center.org
Josefowicz performs this work not on her magnificent Del Gesu violin dated 1724, but on the six-string instrument with amplification from a mixing board in the auditorium. “It’s not every day you have an opportunity to play an instrument like this,” she said. “It took a long time to adapt to one with six strings that go down in fifths. You end up playing in the cello range. That’s a real blast. John’s work has a very Eastern sound and a lot of other unusual things that come together. Even though there are big risks involved, it’s a real joy to play.”
Adams is not the only contemporary composer who admires Josefowicz’s virtuosity. Among the commissions dedicated to her, she recently premiered “Beautiful Passing” by Steve Mackey, Colin Matthews’ Violin Concerto and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s high-octane Violin Concerto for the auspicious occasion of his final concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For the next few years, the two will take it worldwide, beginning in June with the New York City Ballet.
Josefowicz is certain that the Kennedy Center audience will enjoy Adams’ two contrasting pieces on the program.
” ‘The Dharma at Big Sur’ is very different from anything he’s written,” she said. “It has great contrasts, extensive musical vocabulary, and is very daring and far out. I get incredible thrills knowing that people will come to hear me perform something so new and different.”
