What will be classical when?

A prediction I made ten years ago partly came true last night. Before I explain it, let’s go back ten years: At the time I had just begun to carry interest in recent art music or contemporary music. I was deep into 20th century music, but my knowledge of it still barely covered but the first half of the century and I was quite inept as far as the music of the 90s went. I only slightly knew some music by Alfred Schnittke and Einojuhani Rautavaara, as well as having come across the hits of Henryk Gorecki and Arvo Pärt and indirectly the film music of Zbigniew Preisner. I still had some sort of a premonition that I probably was missing out on something. But when I bought tickets to the symphony that night, for a concert starring Gidon Kremer as solist, I had no idea where this was going to lead me in musical findings later on. On the program was this ‘fresh from the oven’ violin concerto of John Adams. I had never even heard of a composer John Adams before, as common as the name may sound. But I had a great view of Gidon Kremer as he started to play and as he played the music cast a spell on me. “So this is what they are doing nowadays, them composers”, I thought. “Oh, my oh my, I will have to get me some more of that. For sure.” The music was somehow familiar, yet so fresh and so different. I found the first movement intriguing and interesting, the second movement mesmerizing and the third movement rousing and exciting. My heart pounded and at times I even had to fight tears that sprang to my eyes. This was ‘good stuff’. I later purchased a recording of this concerto (as soon as it was out, that is, the performance I had heard had actually been a ‘premiere’ on the European continent) and when I did it only confirmed me in my belief that this work would end up a classic of the 20th century. Now, hearing Laila Josefowicz’s rendering of it in concert last night (ten years later) gives me credit again. Her performance was fiery, passionate and engaged. The reception fervent and enthusiastic. I hope to be able to witness the same thing in ten years again. This concerto has come to stay!