JOHN ADAMS LEADS CONCERT AT UCLA

Virtually unpublicized, certainly unexploited, John Adams, one of the brighter lights of what is now called the second generation of American musical minimalists, has been in residence with the L.A. Philharmonic Institute Orchestra all this month.

The New England-born composer, for more than a decade a fixture of musical San Francisco, capped his residency over the weekend by producing--indoors at UCLA--two concerts of contemporary music in performances by students of the institute.

Sunday night, Adams--whose title has been new-music adviser--constructed an integrated, generous and fatiguing program starting with a large mural by Olivier Messiaen, moving through watercolors by Toru Takemitsu and Charles Ives and ending with a giant cartoon by himself.

It was too much. Though the four ensembles playing these pieces sailed through them with no apparent strain, the total program, occupying a dense 87 minutes of music, took all of 2 1/2 hours to get through.

Adams’ 3-year-old “Grand Pianola Music” is airy--light, entertaining, fluffy, it is to Beethoven (Adams’ acknowledged model) as whipped-cream substitute is to butter. But coming at the end of a program that also offered Messiaen’s apocalyptic “Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum,” Takemitsu’s serene “Dorian Horizon” and two vignettes by Ives, it only added length where none was required.

The performances seemed well wrought, earnest and motivated. Adams, who introduced all the works in brief, witty and pointed spoken notes, conducted his own neatly and unself-consciously. Institute conductors led the rest: Leif Bjaland the Messiaen artifact with stoic but effective understatement; Michael Adelson the Takemitsu piece with economical but telling gestures, and Edward Cumming the Ives miniatures with loving detail and a visionary overview.