By coincidence, a recent post exploring John Adams’ El Niño was printed on the twenty fifth anniversary of the work’s premiere in Paris on December 15, 2000. Now, let’s return to El Niño to listen to the nativity oratorio’s surreal last moments.
Within the drama, Mary, Joseph, and the toddler Jesus are on the highway to Egypt. They flee the persecution of King Herod, who has decreed that the kid be killed. A setting of a poem by Rosario Castellano, A Palm Tree tells an apocryphal story from the journey. Jesus bids a palm tree to bend down in order that Mary may collect its fruit.
A recitative unfolds over primal open fifths. Mysterious and glistening, the music enters a dreamscape which leaves behind all that got here earlier than. In a cinematic dissolve, it transitions to the easy sounds of a kids’s choir, accompanied by guitar. We’re reminded of the top of Berlioz’ L’enfance du Christ, described by the composer as “a naive and delicate form of music.”
Recordings
- Adams: El Niño, Kent Nagano · Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin · The London Voices Nonesuch Records
