The Chairman Dances

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genre
Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Named one of the 50 essential classical albums by NPR’s Performance Today, The Chairman Dances features the title piece, which anticipates Adams’s landmark Nixon in China—in the composer’s words, “a kind of warm-up for embarking on the creation of the full opera”—as well as Christian Zeal and Activity, Two Fanfares for Orchestra, and Common Tones in Simple Time.

Description

Named one of the 50 essential classical albums by NPR’s Performance Today, The Chairman Dances features the title piece, which anticipates Adams’s landmark Nixon in China—in the composer’s words, “a kind of warm-up for embarking on the creation of the full opera”—as well as Christian Zeal and Activity, Two Fanfares for Orchestra, and Common Tones in Simple Time.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Recorded November 1986 at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
Recording Engineer: John Newton
Assistant Engineer: Lolly Lewis
Digital Editing: E. Amelia Rogers
Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig

Art direction and design: Carin Goldberg
Cover photograph by Joel Meyerowitz

Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

Nonesuch Selection Number

79144

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
ns_album_artistid
2
ns_album_id
13
ns_album_releasedate
ns_genre_1
0
ns_genre_2
0
Album Status
Artist Name
John Adams
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
San Francisco Symphony
Edo de Waart, conductor

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597914429BUN
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
075597914467
  • 79144

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. 

Buy Now

  • About This Album

    Named one of the 50 essential classical albums by NPR’s Performance Today, The Chairman Dances features the title piece, which anticipates Adams’s landmark Nixon in China—in the composer’s words, “a kind of warm-up for embarking on the creation of the full opera”—as well as Christian Zeal and Activity, Two Fanfares for Orchestra, and Common Tones in Simple Time.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    San Francisco Symphony
    Edo de Waart, conductor

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Recorded November 1986 at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
    Recording Engineer: John Newton
    Assistant Engineer: Lolly Lewis
    Digital Editing: E. Amelia Rogers
    Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig

    Art direction and design: Carin Goldberg
    Cover photograph by Joel Meyerowitz

    Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

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