John Adams Conducts North American Premiere of Frenzy in Toronto
John Adams’s 2023 orchestral work Frenzy receives its North American premiere with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in November, conducted by the composer himself.
John Adams leads the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in the North American premiere of his 2023 orchestral work Frenzy on November 6-9. The program also features Adams’s arrangement of Debussy’s Le Livre de Baudelaire and the aria “This is prophetic!” from his opera Nixon in China, featuring soprano Anna Prohaska.
Frenzy was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Philharmonie de Paris, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The piece received its world premiere in March 2024 with the London Symphony Orchestra and dedicatee Sir Simon Rattle. The Daily Telegraph described the work as “a tense nocturnal chase, with a touch of film noir glamour” while The Financial Times added, "... it is so tautly argued, so packed with tension and incident, that it quickly adds up to a major statement of intent."
Adams describes Frenzy as “an 18-minute orchestra work that passes through the various figurative states of the term as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘agitation or disorder of the mind, likened to madness; a state of delirious fury, enthusiasm; a wild folly, distraction, a crazy notion, a mania for something.’
“For me, ‘frenzy’ sums up the feeling, at times overwhelming, of contemplating the current world around us, especially as it is imagined in our daily doses of digital news and information, much of which we consume without regard to its subversive and subconscious influence on our mood.”
Frenzy starts with a brief quote from Adams’s most recent opera Antony and Cleopatra—which receives its Metropolitan Opera debut in May 2025 with Adams conducting—before the composer takes “the motivic material through an extended hall of mirrors, transforming it, twisting it, turning it, reshaping it, remodeling it,” says Adams.
Following the Toronto performances, Adams travels to New York to conduct the New York Philharmonic in performances of his City Noir and Copland’s Quiet City (Nov 14-16). Later this season, he unveils After the Fall (Jan 16-19), a concerto for celebrated Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson, which premieres with the San Francisco Symphony and David Robertson and tours to multiple European orchestras in the spring.
Concert Information
Wednesday, November 6 at 8pm ET
Saturday, November 9 at 8pm ET
Roy Thomson Hall | Toronto
More info
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
John Adams, conductor
Anna Prohaska, soprano
MAURICE RAVEL Alborada del gracioso
CLAUDE DEBUSSY/arr. JOHN ADAMS Le Livre de Baudelaire
JOHN ADAMS “This is prophetic!” from Nixon in China
JOHN ADAMS Frenzy (North American Premiere)
> Further information on Work: Frenzy
Photo: Deborah O'Grady
