John Adams is one of the most celebrated composers of minimal music, but usually comes a close second to the triumvirate of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Terry Riley. Yet John Adams wrote the most important symphony of the genre. »Harmonielehre«, in which he combines the processuality of minimal music with late romantic gestures, is still considered his major work. In the large John Adams box set »Collected Works«, which his label Nonesuch has now released, it stands at the beginning and end of the 40 CDs featuring recordings from over 40 years. The first recording of »Harmonielehre« with the San Francisco Symphony under Edo de Waart from 1985 seems more austere than the colourful interpretation which Adams himself contributed with the Berlin Philharmonic as their artist-in-residence a good 30 years later. In between, we find other classics by John Adams such as the orchestral piece »Short Ride in a Fast Machine« (1985) or the operas »Nixon in China« (1987) and »The Death of Klinghoffer« (1991) as well as lesser-known pieces such as »Hoodoo Zephyr« (1993) for synthesiser, in which he makes creative use of the possibilities of MIDI technology. Adams has described his work as »post-minimalism« since the 90s, but not only his music appears on this box set. On the album »American Elegies« he can primarily be heard conducting the works of other colleagues or as an arranger, as in the »Five Songs« by the American avant-garde pioneer Charles Ives. It’s high time everyone got to know Adams a little better, who is often unjustly overlooked in this part of the world.
Collected Works
