Spelling mistake delays 'Doctor Atomic Symphony' CD

Classical music fans who were looking forward to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's world-premiere CD release of John Adams' "Doctor Atomic Symphony" on Tuesday are going to have to wait another week -- and they can thank a typo for the delay.

That's because a minor printing error at Nonesuch has caused the shipment to be pushed back to July 28. A misspelling of the conductor's name meant that the cover art had to be reprinted, resulting in the one-week postponement, according to the music company.

The first album cover (pictured) misplaced the "t" from St. Louis Symphony music director David Robertson's name.

"Doctor Atomic Symphony" is adapted by Adams from his 2005 opera "Doctor Atomic." The 25-minute piece was co-commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony, Carnegie Hall and the BBC, and had its world premiere performance August 2007 at the BBC Proms in London.

The CD recording, which is conducted by Robertson, also features Adams' 2001 "Guide to Strange Places," a 23-minute orchestral work that was inspired by an obscure French travel book on Provence.

Both pieces were recorded live in concert by the St. Louis Symphony.

"Doctor Atomic" tells the story of Robert Oppenheimer and the construction of the atom bomb during World War II. The opera is widely available on DVD in a production directed by Peter Sellars.

The symphony version is a purely instrumental arrangement (and condensation) of the opera and is divided into three movements: The Laboratory, Panic and Trinity.

For the impatient among you, an Adams fan has posted a radio broadcast of the symphony on YouTube.

 -- David Ng

Photo: cover art for the "Doctor Atomic Symphony" CD. Credit: Nonesuch

Comments

[sfmike]

What the heck's going on at Nonesuch these days, and why do they seem to have it out for John Adams in particular? The colorful booklet with the recent recording of Adams' "A Flowering Tree" has the first act libretto printed, a few pages of the second act, and then a repeat of the first act. It's one of the major print check boo-boo's I've ever seen.

[Matthew B. Tepper]

I'm not surprised at this error; we are truly living in the post-literate age, where spelling and grammar have fallen by the wayside. As for Nonesuch, sadly, they are but a shadow of the great label they once were. In the '60s and '70s they issued cutting-edge recordings of modern classical music, along with much Americana and esoterica. They came late to the CD-reissue party, and pretty much gave up reissuing their back catalogue when they decided to transform into essentially a hipster label, home to minimalists, Emmylou Harris, and k d lang.

Where are the great Piano Quartet and String Quartet #7 by George Rochberg? Where is that delightful disc of songs by Henry Clay Work (a Stephen Foster contemporary, and a very good one, too)? The misspelling of Maestro Robertson's name on this issue is just a dumb error; the paradigm shift of Nonesuch over the years has been a planned disaster.

[proV]

I once worked for a performing arts org that gave gift baskets to employees. The baskets always included a particular CD, from a major label, of Haydn symphonies. I asked my boss why we gave so many of these away, and he said "look at the CD really, really closely." The cover art was simple - plain blue background with very large white bold type. Nonetheless, I stared at it for 5 minutes before I suddenly realized - this was a CD of symphonies by "Hadyn."