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John Adams
Earbox

Earbox cover art
79453

Track Listing

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1.01Harmonium: I. Negative Love10:32
1.02Harmonium: II. Because I Could Not Stop for Death9:41
1.03Harmonium: III. Wild Nights11:33
1.04Shaker Loops: I. Shaking and Trembling8:25
1.05Shaker Loops: II. Hymning Slews5:08
1.06Shaker Loops: III. Loops and Verses6:55
1.07Shaker Loops: IV. A Final Shaking3:56
2.01The Chairman Dances / Foxtrot for Orchestra12:28
2.02Grand Pianola Music: First Movement15:13
2.03Grand Pianola Music: Second Movement: Second Movement7:47
2.04Grand Pianola Music: Third Movement: On the Dominant Divide7:54
2.05Fearful Symmetries28:02
3.01Nixon in China: Act I: Scene 1: Opening2:53
3.02Nixon in China: Act I: Scene 1: “Soldiers of heaven hold the sky”2:48
3.03Nixon in China: Act I: Scene 1: “The people are the heroes now”2:49
3.04Nixon in China: Act I: Scene 1: Landing of the Spirit of ’762:23
3.05Nixon in China: Act I: Scene 1: “Your flight was smooth, I hope?”1:20
3.06Nixon in China: Act I: Scene 1: “News has a kind of mystery:”7:09
3.07Nixon in China: Act I: Scene 3: “Ladies and gentlemen, Comrades and friends,”6:37
3.08Nixon in China: Act I: Scene 3: “Mr. Premier, distinguished guests,”2:37
3.09Nixon in China: Act I Scene 3: Cheers3:45
3.10Nixon in China: Act II: Scene 1: “This is prophetic!”8:28
3.11Nixon in China: Act II: Scene 2: Opening2:54
3.12Nixon in China: Act II: Scene 2: “Oh what a day I thought I’d die!”4:48
3.13Nixon in China: Act II: Scene 2: “Whip her to death!”2:30
3.14Nixon in China: Act II: Scene 2: “I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung”6:30
3.15Nixon in China: Act III: “Let us examine what you did.”2:44
3.16Nixon in China: Act III: “When I woke up...”1:21
3.17Nixon in China: Act III: “I have no offspring.”1:55
3.18Nixon in China: Act III: “I can keep still,”2:11
3.19Nixon in China: Act III: “After that—/ The sweat/ had soaked my uniform”2:28
3.20Nixon in China: Act III: “Peking watches the stars,”2:43
3.21Nixon in China: Act III: “You won at poker.”3:14
3.22Nixon in China: Act III: “I am old and I cannot sleep”4:24
4.01The Wound Dresser19:06
4.02Christian Zeal and Activity10:06
4.03Five Songs: Thoreau1:29
4.04Five Songs: Down East2:24
4.05Five Songs: Cradle Song1:21
4.06Five Songs: At the River1:13
4.07Five Songs: Serenity1:58
4.08Eros Piano14:52
5.01The Death of Klinghoffer: Prologue: Chorus of the Exiled Palestinians8:33
5.02The Death of Klinghoffer: Chorus of the exiled Jews8:33
5.03The Death of Klinghoffer: Act I: Scene 1: “It was just after 1:15”8:09
5.04The Death of Klinghoffer: Act I: Scene 1: “My Grandson Didi, who was two”5:10
5.05The Death of Klinghoffer: Act I: Scene 1: “Give these orders”2:01
5.06The Death of Klinghoffer: Act I: Scene 1: “So I said to my grandson”1:18
5.07The Death of Klinghoffer: Act I: Scene 1: “We are sorry for you”1:16
5.08The Death of Klinghoffer: Act I: Scene 1: Night Chorus3:33
5.09The Death of Klinghoffer: Act II: Chorus of Hagar and the Angel5.23
5.10The Death of Klinghoffer: Act II: Scene 1: “I’ve never been a violent man”3:29
5.11The Death of Klinghoffer: Act II: Scene 1: “You are always complaining of your suffering”5:11
5.12The Death of Klinghoffer: Act II: Scene 2: Aria of the Falling Body (Gymnopédie)7:24
5.13The Death of Klinghoffer: Act II: Scene 2: Day Chorus4:30
6.01Two Fanfares for Orchestra: Tromba Lontana4:13
6.02Two Fanfares for Orchestra: Short Ride in a Fast Machine4:15
6.03Common Tones in Simple Time20:36
6.04El Dorado: Part I. A Dream of Gold12:35
6.05El Dorado: Part II. Soledades16:09
7.01Harmonielehre: Part I17:04
7.02Harmonielehre: Part II. The Anfortas Wound12:17
7.03Harmonielehre: Part III. Meister Eckhardt and Quackie10:36
7.04Violin Concerto: Part I14:56
7.05Violin Concerto: Part II. Chaconne: “Body through which the dream flows”11:31
7.06Violin Concerto: Part III. Toccare7:40
8.01Chamber Symphony: Mongrel Airs7:45
8.02Chamber Symphony: Aria with Walking Bass8:08
8.03Chamber Symphony: Roadrunner5:45
8.04Hoodoo Zephyr: Tundra10:29
8.05Hoodoo Zephyr: Disappointment Lake8:10
8.06Hoodoo Zephyr: Hoodoo Zephyr10:18
8.07Gnarly Buttons: The Perilous Shore9:55
8.08Gnarly Buttons: Hoe-down (Mad Cow)5:45
8.09Gnarly Buttons: Put Your Loving Arms Around Me8:32
9.01I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Ensemble—I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky8:00
9.02I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: A Sermon on Romance3:07
9.03I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Consuelo’s Dream4:51
9.04I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Mike’s Song about Arresting a Particular Individual3:18
9.05I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Tiffany’s Solo4:49
9.06I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Song about the On-Site Altercation2:45
9.07I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Song about the Bad Boys and the News6:14
9.08I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Your Honor My Client He’s a Young Black Man5:38
9.09I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Leila’s Song: Alone (Again or at Last)4:14
9.10I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Three Weeks and Still I’m Outta My Mind5:08
9.11I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Crushed by the Rock I Been Standing On4:34
9.12I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Dewain’s Song of Liberation and Surprise5:28
9.13I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: ¡Este País!/This Country!4:24
9.14I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: One Last Look at the Angel in Your Eyes1:57
9.15I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky: Finale4:36
10.01Lollapalooza6:42
10.02John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Judah to Ocean2:30
10.03John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Toot Nipple1:15
10.04John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Dogjam2:31
10.05John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Pavane: She’s So Fine6:32
10.06John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Rag the Bone2:59
10.07John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Habanera4:45
10.08John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Stubble Crotchet2:39
10.09John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Hammer & Chisel1:11
10.10John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Alligator Escalator3:49
10.11John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Ständchen: The Little Serenade4:52
10.12John’s Book of Alleged Dances: Judah to Ocean (Reprise)2:31
10.13Slonimsky’s Earbox13:21

News & Reviews

  • Wednesday, March 6, 2013

    New John Adams Documentary Film by Mark Kidel to Premiere on BBC4 TV

    American Master: A Portrait of John Adams, a new film documentary about composer John Adams by Mark Kidel, will be broadcast for the first time on BBC4 TV on Friday, March 8, at 8 PM. The film, which offers a journey through the musical landscapes of the composer, will be repeated on BBC HD on March 15. The film will also be screened at the Barbican in London on March 16 as a prelude to the European premiere of Adams's The Gospel According to the Other Mary with the LA Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Watch an excerpt from the film here.

  • Thursday, February 14, 2013

    Nonesuch to Record John Adams's "City Noir" with St. Louis Symphony

    Nonesuch Records returns to Powell Hall in St. Louis this weekend to record the St. Louis Symphony's performances of John Adams's City Noir, February 15 and 16. John Adams will be in attendance for the recording. The Saturday evening performance will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio, 90.7-KWMU, streaming at stlpublicradio.org. Nonesuch will be back in Powell Hall in October to record a new John Adams concerto written for saxophone. The concerto and City Noir will combined and released by Nonesuch Records at a future date.

About this Album

On October 19, 1999, Nonesuch Records released The John Adams Earbox, a 10-CD box set retrospective, representing nearly all of John Adams’s recorded output for the label. The set includes all of the composer’s major works with which Adams has redefined contemporary classical music over the previous two decades. All recordings on The John Adams Earbox were supervised by the composer, and many were conducted or performed by Adams as well. All but four works on the Earbox were originally released on Nonesuch as first recordings.

The John Adams Earbox includes examples from every phase of Adams’s career, from his earliest orchestral pieces such as Grand Pianola Music (1982), Harmonielehre (1985), and Harmonium (1980), to the widely hailed operas Nixon in China (1985-86) and The Death of Klinghoffer (1990-91), to works of this decade including Chamber Symphony (1992), Violin Concerto (1993), John’s Book of Alleged Dances (written for Kronos Quartet in 1994), Gnarly Buttons (1995) and the 1995 stagework I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky.


The Earbox features the world premiere recording of Slonimsky’s Earbox (1996), a virtuosic piece for orchestra, in a performance by The Hallé Orchestra with Kent Nagano conducting. Also included are the first Nonesuch recordings of Lollapalooza (1995), an orchestral piece written as a 40th birthday present for Simon Rattle, and Harmonium, in a performance by the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, conducted by Adams.


A comprehensive illustrated booklet (nearly 200 pages) accompanies the box set with liner notes by John Adams, Renaud Machart (chief music critic of Le Monde), and Nonesuch Records President Robert Hurwitz.

Credits

MUSICIANS
Disc One—1-3: San Francisco Symphony, John Adams, conductor; San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Vance George, director. 4-7: Orchestra of St. Luke’s, John Adams, conductor.

Disc Two—1: San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart, conductor. 2-4: London Sinfonietta, John Adams, conductor; John Alley, Shelagh Sutherland, pianos; Nicole Tibbels, Judith Rees, sopranos; Teresa Shaw, mezzo-soprano. 5: Orchestra of St. Luke’s, John Adams, conductor.

Disc Three—Music by John Adams. Libretto by Alice Goodman. Cast in order of appearance: Sanford Sylvan (Chou En-lai); James Maddalena (Richard Nixon); Thomas Hammons (Henry Kissinger); Carolann Page (Pat Nixon); Mari Opatz, Stephanie Friedman, Marion Dry (Three Contraltos, Secretaries to Mao); Trudy Ellen Craney (Chiang Ch’ing [Madame Mao Tse-tung]); John Duykers (Mao Tse-tung). Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Edo de Waart, conductor.

Disc Four—1: Sanford Sylvan, baritone; Orchestra of St. Luke’s, John Adams, conductor; Naoko Tanaka, violin; Chris Gekker, trumpet. 2: San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart, conductor. 3-7: Dawn Upshaw, soprano; Orchestra of St. Luke’s, John Adams, conductor. 8: Paul Crossley, piano; Orchestra of St. Luke’s, John Adams, conductor.

Disc Five—Music by John Adams. Libretto by Alice Goodman. Cast in order of appearance: James Maddalena (The Captain); Janice Felty (Swiss Godmother, Austrian Woman, British Dancing Girl); Thomas Hammons (The First Officer, “Rambo”); Thomas Young (Molqi); Eugene Perry (Mamoud); Sanford Sylvan (Leon Klinghoffer); Stephanie Friedman (Omar); Sheila Nadler (Marilyn Klinghoffer). Orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon, Kent Nagano, conductor. The London Opera Chorus, Richard Cooke, director.

Disc Six—1-3: San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart, conductor; Glenn Fischtal, Laurie McGaw, trumpets (1-2). 4-5: The Hallé Orchestra, Kent Nagano, conductor.

Disc Seven—1-3: San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart, conductor. 4-6: Gidon Kremer, violin; London Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano, conductor.

Disc Eight—1-3, 7-9: London Sinfonietta, John Adams, conductor; Michael Collins, clarinet (7-9). 4-6: Performed by John Adams.

Disc Nine—Music by John Adams. Libretto by June Jordan. Cast in order of appearance: Audra McDonald (Consuelo); Michael McElroy (Dewain); Welly Yang (Rick); Angela Teek (Leila); Darius de Haas (David); Marin Mazzie (Tiffany); Richard Muenz (Mike). Grant Gershon, vocal director. Seppo Kantonen, Marja Mutru, Markku Tabell, keyboards; Janne Murto, saxophone; Kari Tenkanen, clarinet, bass clarinet; Hannu Rantanen, electric bass, double bass; Jari Nieminen, guitar; Jari-Pekka Karvonen, drums. John Adams, conductor.

Disc Ten—1, 13: The Hallé Orchestra, Kent Nagano, conductor. 2-12: Kronos Quartet: David Harrington, violin; John Sherba, violin; Hank Dutt, viola; Joan Jeanrenaud, cello.

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Earbox
This compilation mastered by Robert C. Ludwig, Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME

Design by Bethany Johns Design
Box cover concept by John Heiden, SMOG Design
Cover photo by William Clift, Point Reyes, CA, 1997

Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

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