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Adams - Hallelujah Junction

John Adams, Theatre of Voices (counter-tenor), Patrick Marco (director), Dawn Upshaw (soprano)

London Sinfonietta, The Opera De Lyon, The London Opera Chorus, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Voices, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen

Release Date: 6th Oct 2008
Catalogue No: 7559798921
Label: Nonesuch
Length: 2 hours 25 minutes

Adams, J: Harmonielehre: Part I

Work length17:03

Album only

John Adams

Adams, J: Shaker Loops: I. Shaking and Trembling

Work length8:25

$1.30

$1.70

John Adams

Adams, J: Harmonium: Wild Nights

Work length11:40

Album only

John Adams

Adams, J: Act I, Scene 3

Work length12:58

$3.90

$5.10

John Adams

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Comrades and Friends,"

Track length6:36

$1.30

$1.70

"Mr. Premier, Distinguished Guests,"

Track length2:36

$1.30

$1.70

Cheers

Track length3:46

$1.30

$1.70

Adams, J: Chamber Symphony - Mongrel Airs

Work length7:46

$1.30

$1.70

John Adams

Adams, J: Gnarly Buttons: Put Your Loving Arms Around Me

Work length8:32

$1.30

$1.70

London Sinfonietta
John Adams

Adams, J: Hoodoo Zephyr

Work length10:20

Album only

Adams, J: Prologue

Work length17:08

$2.60

$3.40

John Adams
The Opera De Lyon, The London Opera Chorus
Kent Nagano

Chorus Of Exiled Palestinians

Track length8:34

$1.30

$1.70

Chorus Of Exiled Jews

Track length8:34

$1.30

$1.70

Adams, J: Este Pais / This Country

Work length4:24

$1.30

$1.70

John Adams

Adams, J: Violin Concerto: III. Toccare

Work length7:39

$1.30

$1.70

John Adams

Adams, J: III. Chain to the Rhythm

Work length10:54

Album only

John Adams
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen

Adams, J: The Babe Leaped in Her Womb

Work length3:30

$1.30

$1.70

John Adams, Theatre of Voices (countertenor), Patrick Marco (director)
The London Voices, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Kent Nagano

Adams, J: Magnificat

Work length3:23

$1.30

$1.70

John Adams, Theatre of Voices (countertenor), Patrick Marco (director), Dawn Upshaw (soprano)
The London Voices, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Kent Nagano

Adams, J: A Flowering Tree

Work length7:08

$1.30

$1.70

John Adams

The Dharma at Big Sur, Part I: A New Day

Work length14:33

Album only

John Adams

About
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About

The two-disc Hallelujah Junction serves as a compelling soundtrack and companion piece to composer John Adam’s forthcoming memoir of the same name, to be published this October in the UK by Faber and Faber. The 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer proves to be equally gifted as an author, candidly recounting the wanderlust-fuelled story of his life to date and charting the evolution of his extraordinary career, often with more humility than gravity and an ample supply of humour. Adams also examines the work of the artists who have inspired and/or influenced him, or whom he has simply admired, from Duke Ellington to John Cage to Terry Riley to Brian Wilson. A young man of modest means but immense talent, unrelenting drive and more than a little anti-establishment attitude, Adams searched, and at times struggled, for years to find his unique voice as a composer. The early chapters of his story unfold against a colourful backdrop of social, cultural and political upheaval during the late sixties and early seventies, from the lecture halls of Harvard to the streets of San Francisco. For Adams, the hypnotically minimalist approach of the Northern Californian Riley’s In C was “marvellously provocative,” but minimalism became more jumping-off point for Adams than destination, as the wide-ranging material assembled on this collection illustrates.

The Hallelujah Junction compilation also functions as an eloquent, stand-alone survey of Adams’ more than twenty-year affiliation with Nonesuch Records, opening with Part One of his 1986 label debut, Harmonielehre. Included are excerpts from his groundbreaking and controversial “docu-operas,” Nixon In China and The Death of Klinghoffer, as well as a piece from his latest Nonesuch release, the fairy tale-inspired opera, The Flowering Tree. Also featured are portions of his Los Angeles-themed musical theatre work, I Was Looking At the Ceiling And Then I Saw the Sky and his holiday oratorio, El Niño, which many forward-thinking regional symphonies have turned into a perennial holiday offering. Readers of Adams’ memoir will particularly appreciate the inclusion of the first movement from Shaker Loops; Adams describes the initial debut of this now-classic piece in near-slapstick fashion as he battles a hangover, confronts a nest of bees, and lands in the emergency room all before he can make it to a dress rehearsal of the still-in-gestation work. Concluding the CD set is Dharma At Big Sur, Part One, a “heartbreakingly beautiful work” (The Wall Street Journal) that Adams regards as a kind of purely musical autobiography.

Adam’s memoir and this CD set, taken together, offer the most comprehensive look at Adams’ process as a composer – his breakthroughs, his triumphs, his failures -- conveyed in a fashion that will be engrossing both to the casual reader/listener and the serious music student. As the New Yorker’s Alex Ross has put it, Adams “has won his eminence fair and square; he has addressed life as it is lived now, and he has found a language that makes sense to a wide audience.”

Adams - Hallelujah Junction

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