John Adams’s 75th year is being celebrated not only with the premiere of a new opera, but also with a 40-disc retrospective box set on the Nonesuch label.Credit...Marissa Leshnov for The New York Times
Library of Congress Acquires Music Manuscripts and Papers of Composer John Adams
Modern Classical Composer Known for ‘Nixon in China’ and ‘Short Ride in a Fast Machine’
The Library of Congress has acquired the music manuscripts and papers of contemporary American composer, conductor and writer John Adams. Adams is known for works including the opera “Nixon in China” and concert pieces such as “Shaker Loops,” “Harmonielehre,” “Road Movies,” “Chamber Symphony” and “Short Ride in a Fast Machine.”
Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?
John Adams on composing
Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?
John Adams: Collected Works
Released June 24, 2022
The forty-disc box set John Adams Collected Works features recordings spanning more than four decades of the composer’s career with the label, plus two extensive booklets with new essays and notes by Timo Andres, Julia Bullock, Robert Hurwitz, Nico Muhly, and Jake Wilder-Smith. Nonesuch made its first record with John Adams in 1985; he was signed exclusively to the label that year, and since then the company has released forty-two first recordings and thirty-one all-Adams albums. “John Adams coming to the label was one of the central events in our company’s history,” says Robert Hurwitz, Nonesuch’s longtime President and current Chairman Emeritus. “The recordings were done in real time, mostly within a few months of a piece’s first performance. Every recording was either conducted by John, or made under close supervision of the composer, who was in the control booth for every album—when he wasn’t on the podium.” Collected Works includes thirty-five discs of Nonesuch recordings and five from other labels.
