John Adams and the city that doesn’t know how to keep a secret

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In a notorious interview on the BBC recently, John Adams confessed that as the composer of the opera ‘The Death of Klinghoffer,’ a nuanced meditation on terrorism, he is subject to questioning by the Transportation Security Administration at airports when he travels. The bombshell was then sensationalized under the headline ‘I’m Blacklisted’ in the Guardian newspaper.

But what went unnoticed was the news Adams dropped in the interview about his next symphonic work, to be called ‘City Noir.’ That, he said, would be given its premiere by the London Symphony Orchestra in a year. In fact, the symphony is also a Los Angeles Philharmonic commission and, sources confirm, is being written for a different Guy Noir, namely one Gustavo Dudamel, to conduct on his opening program as the orchestra’s music director next fall before the score reaches London.

The further good news for Los Angeles is that Adams clearly harbors no grudges against Dudamel, who was set to lead the premiere of Adams’ most recent opera, ‘The Flowering Tree,’ with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra two years ago in Vienna. But big-city noir management apparently had other plans for the Venezuelan superstar and his fabulous band, and Adams was left to piece together an ad hoc Venezuelan ensemble, which the composer then conducted himself.

All has worked out well, however. Last month, Nonesuch Records released a terrific recording of ‘Flowering Tree,’ with Adams this time conducting the London Symphony. (The composer will also be on the podium with the L.A. Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in May for a staging of ‘Flowering Tree’ by Peter Sellars.)

And speaking of Dudamel (who returns to L.A. later this month), just out on a Deutsche Grammophon DVD is a fascinating documentary about the Simon Bolivar orchestra preparing for a performance of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony in the composer’s birthplace, Bonn, Germany, last year. Best is the bonus -- a go-for-broke performance of the revolutionary 50-minute symphony. The German audience probably thought it had heard everything and found out it hadn’t.

-- Mark Swed

Los Angeles Times photo by Carolyn Cole