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John Adams

Michael Berkeley's guest is composer John Adams, whose musical choices include Sousa, Duke Ellington and the Beach Boys, as well as Beethoven, Schubert, Hagen, Wagner and Debussy.

US composer John Adams talks to Michael Berkeley about the music that makes him tick.
The Pulitzer-Prize-winning American composer John Adams is one of the world's most successful contemporary composers. His best-known works, often on contemporary or controversial subject-matter, include the operas 'Nixon in China', based on Richard Nixon's epoch-making 1972 meeting with the Chinese leader Mao Tse Tung; 'The Death of Klinghoffer', about the terrorist hijacking of the cruise liner Achille Lauro and the murder of an elderly American passenger; and Doctor Atomic (2005), which deals with Robert Oppenheimer and the building of the first US atomic bomb. His 2002 choral piece 'On the Transmigration of Souls' commemorates the victims of the 9/11 attacks; while his minimalist orchestral and ensemble works, such as 'Shaker Loops', 'The Chairman Dances' and 'A Short Ride in a Fast Machine' have entered the contemporary repertoire and earned him a wide international audience.

His own musical tastes encompass popular American masterpieces such as Sousa's 'The Stars and Stripes Forever', Duke Ellington's 'The Tattooed Bride' and the Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations' as well as a series of extraordinary works written towards the end of composers' lives: a late Beethoven string quartet; Schubert's last great piano sonata; Hagen's monologue from Act One of Wagner's opera 'Gotterdammerung', and Debussy's elusive ballet score 'Jeux'.

1 hour

Last on

Sun 16 May 2010 12:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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Music Played

  • John Adams

    News has a kind of mystery from Nixon in China (Act I sc i)

    Performers: James Maddalena (Nixon), Orchestra of St Lukes/Edo de Waart

    • NONESUCH 79177.

  • John Philip Sousa

    The Stars and Stripes Forever

    Performers: United States Airforce Band of the Golden West/Douglas Monroe

    • Altissimo 75442260332.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Scherzo (5th Mvt) from Quartet in C sharp minor Op 131

    Performers: New Budapest String Quartet

    • HYPERION CDA66405.

  • Franz Schubert

    2nd mvt from Piano Sonata in B flat major (D960)

    Performer: Richard Goode (piano)

    • NONESUCH 7559791242.

  • Richard Wagner - Hier sitz' ich zur Wacht (GΓ¶tterdΓ¤mmerung Act 1)

    Performers: Karl Ridderbusch, Berlin Philharmonic/Herbert von Karajan

  • James Rhodes

    Jeux (excerpt)

    Performers: Cleveland Orchestra/Pierre Boulez

    • M2YK45620.

  • The Duke Ellington Orchestra

    The Tattooed Bride

    Performers: Duke Ellington & His Orchestra

    • MWML4418.

  • The Beach Boys

    Good Vibrations

    Performer: Beach Boys

    • CDP74667382.

Broadcast

  • Sun 16 May 2010 12:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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