American Elegies

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Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Adams conducts the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in this exploration of 20th-century American composers, with soprano Dawn Upshaw featured on orchestrations of five Charles Ives pieces. Entertainment Weekly calls this “an enchanting collection, continually beautiful, quietly profound.”

Description

Adams conducts the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in this exploration of 20th-century American composers, with soprano Dawn Upshaw featured on orchestrations of five Charles Ives pieces. Entertainment Weekly calls this “an enchanting collection, continually beautiful, quietly profound.”

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Recorded August 1989 at Manhattan Center Studios, New York City
Engineered by Paul Zinman
Mixed at DJCS, Oakland, CA, and SoundMirror, Jamaica Plain, MA

Cover photograph: Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, by William Eggleston
Design by John Heiden

Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

Nonesuch Selection Number

79249

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
ns_album_artistid
2
ns_album_id
10
ns_album_releasedate
ns_genre_1
0
ns_genre_2
0
Album Status
Artist Name
John Adams
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Orchestra of St. Luke's
John Adams, conductor
Dawn Upshaw, soprano (2-6)
Paul Crossley, piano (9)

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
Price
0.00
UPC
075597924923BUN
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
603497120369
  • 79249

News & Reviews

  • Girls of the Golden West, John Adams’ eighth music theater work to be released by Nonesuch, is due April 26. The composer leads the LA Phil in this recording made in Disney Hall, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Grant Gershon. You can hear the aria "Wagon Ride," featuring Davóne Tines and Julia Bullock, now. For the opera, which tells the story of the California Gold Rush, longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars drew from original sources from the era—letters, journals, newspaper articles, and familiar song lyrics—to create the libretto. The cast also includes Paul Appleby, Hye Jung Lee, Elliot Madore, Daniela Mack, and Ryan McKinny.

  • The Metropolitan Opera has announced its 2024–25 season, including the Met premiere of John Adams's latest opera, Antony and Cleopatra, on May 12, 2025. The adaptation of Shakespeare’s drama stars soprano Julia Bullock, following her company debut in Adams’s El Niño this April, as Cleopatra, opposite bass-baritone Gerald Finley’s Antony. Adams himself conducts a new staging by director Elkhanah Pulitzer, who transports the story from ancient Rome to the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s. Performances run through June 7, 2025. 

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  • About This Album

    Adams conducts the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in this exploration of 20th-century American composers, with soprano Dawn Upshaw featured on orchestrations of five Charles Ives pieces. Entertainment Weekly calls this “an enchanting collection, continually beautiful, quietly profound.”

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Orchestra of St. Luke's
    John Adams, conductor
    Dawn Upshaw, soprano (2-6)
    Paul Crossley, piano (9)

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Recorded August 1989 at Manhattan Center Studios, New York City
    Engineered by Paul Zinman
    Mixed at DJCS, Oakland, CA, and SoundMirror, Jamaica Plain, MA

    Cover photograph: Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, by William Eggleston
    Design by John Heiden

    Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

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