On the Transmigration of Souls
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News & Reviews
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"It would be difficult to make an account of all the ways John Adams’s music has influenced me and my work," Nico Muhly writes in his note in the upcoming 40-disc box set John Adams Collected Works, "but in the spirit of writing something personal, I’d like to offer a few perhaps impersonal observations about his work in a more circular, even crabwise, fashion. There are specific places in John’s music where there is a rhyme hidden across decades, relating to an elusive sense of 'meaning' in his music which radiates across his body of work." You can read his complete note from the box set here.
Nonesuch Records releases the forty-disc John Adams Collected Works, a box set of recordings spanning more than four decades of the composer’s career with the label, on July 1, 2022. It includes 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.
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About This Album
2004 Grammy Winner
This Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–winning piece, a New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center's Great Performers co-commission, was written in honor of the heroes and in memory of the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It was made possible with the generous support of a longtime New York family. The Atlantic Monthly called the piece “a breakthrough” with “something unique to say to a wide public”; London’s Independent dubbed it “imperative listening.”
Credits
MUSICIANS
New York Philharmonic: Lorin Maazel, conductor
New York Choral Artists: Joseph Flummerfelt, director
Brooklyn Youth Chorus: Dianne Berkun, director
Philip Smith, solo trumpet
Preben Antonson, boy’s voice
Other Voices: Sam Adams, Emily Adams, Ditsa Pines, Deborah O’Grady, Morgan StaplesPRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by John Adams and Lawrence Rock
Recorded in concert September 19-24, 2002, at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City
Engineered by Lawrence Rock
Soundscape engineering by Mark Grey
Mixed by John Kilgore at Masque Sound, New York City
Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME
Design by John Gall
Photography by Joel Meyerowitz
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
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This Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning piece was written in honor of the heroes and in memory of the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Atlantic Monthly called the piece “a breakthrough” with “something unique to say to a wide public”; London’s Independent dubbed it “imperative listening.”
2004 Grammy Winner
This Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–winning piece, a New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center's Great Performers co-commission, was written in honor of the heroes and in memory of the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It was made possible with the generous support of a longtime New York family. The Atlantic Monthly called the piece “a breakthrough” with “something unique to say to a wide public”; London’s Independent dubbed it “imperative listening.”
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by John Adams and Lawrence Rock
Recorded in concert September 19-24, 2002, at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City
Engineered by Lawrence Rock
Soundscape engineering by Mark Grey
Mixed by John Kilgore at Masque Sound, New York City
Mastered by Robert C. Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, ME
Design by John Gall
Photography by Joel Meyerowitz
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz

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MUSICIANS
New York Philharmonic: Lorin Maazel, conductor
New York Choral Artists: Joseph Flummerfelt, director
Brooklyn Youth Chorus: Dianne Berkun, director
Philip Smith, solo trumpet
Preben Antonson, boy’s voice
Other Voices: Sam Adams, Emily Adams, Ditsa Pines, Deborah O’Grady, Morgan Staples