John Adams Nixon In China

Yeah, I just discovered this guy, you here so much about Reich, Riley, Glass, Younge, and Conrad.

Road Movies makes me ache.

What about his Tape Pieces? I am interested mucho.

I don't know Adams beyond "Nixon In China", which I find amazing. I wsa in the chorus for this production and that remains one of my favorite experiences to date.

Wow, well done!

I just typed john adams into last.fm radio player and its playing me the strokes!

http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i1491200_desktop.gif

i should check this out.

Yeah, I just discovered this guy, you here so much about Reich, Riley, Glass, Young, and Conrad.

around these parts you might hear those names but as far as many of the people rich enough to buy season tickets to the symphony, Adams is regularly called things like 'America's greatest living composer'

I heard Nixon In China when it came out, first impression was one of shock that someone had laid claim to Glass' style so brashly, but my friends who like him say the appeal is in his straight-forward sense of melody. The only other three things I've heard was the SF premiere of A Flowering Tree, which had beautiful moments but left me drifting a bit, that 9/11 tribute which was just definitely not my thing, and his Charles Ives Knew My Father tribute which I kind of think would have made Charlie very very uncomfortable (I had to take it off the stereo). But I get the impression that it's the late 70's early 80's pieces I'd be into, like Harmonium & Shaker Loops, I'm open to recommendations, records are expensive

I see Adams go to a lot of weird New Music shows in the Bay Area, he pops up in unlikely places, I love that -- not too many 60 year olds who still seem to love going out to check out new music

(one addendum, since everything seemed to make Charlie uncomfortable I can't criticize Adams piece for that. And I appreciate the CD of Adams conducting the Ensemble Moderne playing Ives' Fourth Symphony, it's absolutely from the heart & well as astoundingly precise)

I've been meaning to revisit Adams recently, particularly Nixon in China. My first impression years ago was very poor, expecting something like Reich, Riley, and Glass, and getting something more like mid-late Nyman. Like Nyman, though, his early work ("Shaker Loops") instantly grabbed me, but it didn't hold like any of the reference points that drew me to it. But again, meaning to go back to it finding myself wrong.

John Adams is great. 'Gnarly Buttons' is a permanent feature on my mp3 player should I ever feel the urge. I love the interplay between all the instruments (clarinet, banjo, guitar, mandolin, trombone, English horn, bassoon, piano, strings). Not forgetting the mooing cow in the 2nd movement of course.

I saw a new production of this last night. I've yearned to see it for 25 years now. The production is very different but the experience was overwhelming and worth the wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NHIs3FTD3Q

News. News. News news news news news news news news has a, has a, has a, has a, has a kind of mystery!

I'm amazed that I remembered almost every word of the first ten minutes.

I saw this on Saturday. I thought it was about two hours too long if I'm being honest

wtf paolo.

I'm just not that cultured :(

And I paid a fiver for a whisky at the interval and got the smallest measure I've ever seen in my life. It was about half the size of a regular dram. I was fuming