So glad you covered Adams - I got to know his work from Edo de Waart The Chairman Dances disk mentioned and just fell in love with the sensual, glittering orchestration. Short Ride in a Fast Machine in De Waart's performance is amazing (the later parts just open up like a speeding vehicle traveling through an Aaron Copeland evocation of the American wilderness!). I then checked out Harmonielehre (again De Waart's recording). Those initial pounding chords at the beginning are so arresting it draws you in and the The Anfortas Wound movement is really harrowing with a screaming Mahlerian climax - amazing stuff. He is a great composer. Perhaps something on John Corigliano at some stage too? His Symphonies (the 1st and 3rd 'Circus Maximus') remarkable pieces IMO. Cheers

I like John Adams' music. Also can say I took a class, a graduate seminar, from Adams at the San Francisco Conservatory--thus, early in his compositional career (he was then writing Phrygian Gates for faculty pianist Mack McCray). Even then, the articulate musical thinker and speaker he still is...

My gosh, how we love your drops here on the inner-tube. Thank you a thousand times for taking your valuable time to give us the skinny on the latest releases in the classical field!

I just purchased mine, was lucky to be able to get my hands on a second-hand one. Super happy with it. Thanks for this wonderful review of a marvellous contemporary composer!

For me, the earlier works, which I love, are fresher than the later, as a rule. Adams, especially in his later vocal works, but also something like 'Scheherazade 2,' is too prone to easy emotional blackmail, usually with subjects that nicely burnish his right-on credentials with the Liberal Left establishment. The end of 'Doctor Atomic' is a particularly embarrassing example of this, but as Dave hints, The Transmigration of souls and 'Klinghoffer' are facile responses to tragic and complex political events - the reason 'Nixon' works is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. And after 'Fearful Symmetries' and 'Century Rolls', he is too prepared to turn out yet another chugging, over-scored if effective crowd-pleaser with a cutesy title. 'Harmonielehre', Shaker Loops, Harmonium. El Dorado and GPM though, are fabulous. Update: just listened to The Guide to Strange Places - IMO an absolute winner! :-) The finale is the closest JA has gotten to Boulez' Notations!

I have not listened to much of John Adams. He definitely deserves a lot more of my time. I consider Harmonium to be a masterpiece. I think he is the best composer to set Dickinson, the idiosyncratic nature of minimalism a match for the poet’s own idiosyncratic poetic demeanor. Adams is the composer who sold me on minimalism in the first place. I shall let this video plot my course as I decide what to listen to next.

very interesting. thanks Mr. Hurwitz.

One clarification: you mentioned the classic recording of Harmonium. Adams’ rendition with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra was preceded by an older account on ECM with Edo De Waart.

After watching your review, several times, I've just purchased it. Wasn't sure as I already have his ear box but in the end it just looks too good. 👍

I am not alone in finding John Adams one of the most interesting composers living and working now. He combines the classical heritage with the jazz, rock and pop elements (also the masterly cartoon scores of Carl Stallings et al.) into a distinct compound, not a mixture. I saw The Flowering Tree presented in Brisbane, Australia in 2019 (before the Long Black Cloud came down.) The story is repugnant, but the score is luminous.

Great whirlwind tour! I fully respect dismissing Klinghoffer as moral abomination, even though I got to know it very well, and love its serenity, power, and deeply moving ending. I am glad you liked El Nino though; otherwise we couldn't be anonymous internet friends any more. (Just kidding.) It will be interesting to see what you think of his new opera Antony and Cleopatra, which I just saw in SF. It's in a similar musical style to Klinghoffer and Dr. Atomic, but without the raw subject matter of the first, or the purposely banal hyper-realist dialogue of the second.

Although I like Adams’ Transmigration a little more than you do, he did write an essay about why he felt the Pulitzer judges were not very smart in picking this work over more deserving composers. As far as his Klinghoffer and Dr Atomic, I like them better too. But as far as operas being composed these days, Kevin Puts is doing it better than anybody.

The disc that contains Grand Pianola Music and Absolute Jest was initially on the SFS's own label...then migrated to the set. The Berlin Philharmonic Harmonielehre was on their own label, too. I bought that recording track by track via Amazon, and while good; isn't as sharp as either San Francisco account.

Since you mentioned NONESUCH , Have you heard anything about Nonesuch (Warner) releasing any of those wonderful Nonesuch LP recordings from years ago on to CD ? A lot of those performances were outstanding. Sort of what NAXOS is doing now. Maybe you can give a hint out to Warner that these performances would be greatly appreciated by classical music fans out there and introduce fans that weren't around back then to some glorious music. Thanks, Dave. Great video as always.

A fine set! I prefer the Berlin Phil recording of Harmonielehre to De Waart’s San Francisco one with its out-of-tune high trumpet! The Berlin Phil also has a terrific box on their own label (which Warner “borrowed”) that contains some really thrilling performances-the only outright dud being their Wound Dresser that does not compare well with the Nonesuch original. For musical humor it’s hard to beat Absolute Jest either with Tilson Thomas or Oundjian on Chandos.

THANK YOU for calling out The Death of Klinghoffer for its offensive story! EVIL IS EVIL...period!!!

I enjoyed the first act of Doctor Atomic when I saw it (Met in HD) with a strong finish in the John Donne setting. The second act was a bore. Nixon in China is mostly wonderful. But I'm afraid Klinghoffer especially and Transmigration to a degree have colored my reactions and regard for all of his work. Unfairly, sure, I'll grant that. But I look askance at an artist who could produce such an abomination in the first place. Sorry. Your video though is perfectly fair and astute. But Adams should stick to the abstract.

Can someone list the top 3 non-minimalist orchestral works by Adams as "starters" for getting into his music?

Hi Dave, do you consider doing more Repertoire "Best recording of" videos? I would be interested in your lists for the Beethoven piano concertos (individually; you have done the cycle and the ideal list), Beethoven piano trios (complete), Beethoven violin sonatas (complete) the Grieg piano concerto, the Ravel piano concerto, Brahms symphonies 2 and 4, and some of the later Mozart piano concertos (individually). That's of course only a request and wish.

His operas try way too hard. Nixon in China mostly escapes, but Death of Klinghoffer is interesting in some of the choruses, and Doctor Atomic’s only spark is Oppenheimer’s aria “Batter my heart.” I got to hear all of the live performances of the St. Louis recordings, with the Doctor Atomic Symphony being the most boring and City Noir by far the most interesting. Adams does have a sense of theatricality, but for whatever reason it is best represented in his more abstract music, such as City Noir or Harmonielehre or Hallelujah Junction. Perhaps the absence of an opera hall frees him from the need to pile on the interminable gassiness bloating his operas.