American Berserk
for solo piano (2001)
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Duration: 7 min.

First performance: February 25, 2002, Carnegie Hall, New York City,
Garrick Ohlssohn, piano

Commissioned by Carnegie Hall Corporation. Dedicated to Garrick Ohlssohn

Recorded on Nonesuch 79699 by Nic Hodges

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John Adams on Amercian Bersek

As its title suggests, “American Berserk” is a short, high-energy work for virtuoso pianist. The title, from Philip Roth, hints at the darker, manic edge of American life evoked in his novel, “American Pastoral”.

The piece was composed for Garrick Ohlssohn after Garrick and I collaborated on the Copland Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. It was later taken up and subsequently recorded by the English pianist, Nic Hodges.

Influences of American jazz and bop playing mixed with impressions of Conlon Nancarrow’s disjunct rhythmic world dominate the writing of this short, manic, bipolar scherzo.

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