John Adams's A Flowering Tree and Kronos Quartet's recording of Terry Riley's The Cusp of Magic have been named among NPR's Top 10 classical CDs of 2008.

The list comes from Brian McCreath of Boston public radio station WGBH, who notes, in The Cusp of Magic, the composer's bringing together of the string quartet and the pipa, a traditional Chinese lute, and, in Riley's words, ultimately making the distinctions between their respective regions of origin "seamless so that the listener is carried between worlds without an awareness of how he/she ends up there."

McCreath says that in A Flowering Tree, while the inspiration may be similarly eastward-looking, "the result is quite different." He continues:

For A Flowering Tree, based on an Indian folk story, the composer tells a story of love and transformation. Rather than attempting a musical hybridization, Adams relies entirely on his own imaginative musical language. That the result is so convincing demonstrates how powerful that language is.

See the complete list and listen to tracks from the Top 10 list at npr.org/music.

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The recent Nonesuch recording of Adams's A Flowering Tree also receives a perfect five stars from Audiophile Audition, which exclaims: "John Adams has produced a masterwork."

In an "imaginative score" that is "sensuous and subtle," says reviewer Mike Birman, the composer creates a "shimmering soundscape" of "ravishing sounds." What's more, he continues:

The sonorities Adams extracts from his orchestra have the same sort of magical quality that is found in Stravinsky's brilliant ballet scores such as The Firebird and Petrouchka: an indication of the high level of Adams' latest creative work.

Birman goes on to describe A Flowering Tree as "a radiant sunburst of orchestral beauty. This score abounds in ravishing music, some of the most purely gorgeous music of recent years."

With Adams having "grown into possibly our finest living composer," even as he tells the fantastical tale of magical spells and romance in ancient India, "he never utilizes anything other than an utterly appropriate compositional element, a hallmark of this score's beauty and poise."

In addition to his praise of Adams "verdant score," the review has kind words for the "beautifully recorded" album itself, lauding the "superbly recorded" vocalists and the "deep, rich and warmly resonant" recording of the orchestra, creating "a spacious soundfield." The resulting album, he concludes: "Most strongly recommended!"

Read the full review at audaud.com.