John Adams

I saw Nixon in China last year in London, & rated it as one of my best musical evenings out. It was dramatically very successful [tricky to manage with a series of tableaux] and also very funny, which I wasn't expecting. The recording isn't entirely satisfactory, but is still worth having. When R3 had an Adams weekend earlier this year I was amazed at his range.

throb

I have only one disc of Adams, a beautifully produced Nonesuch disc with two pieces, "John's Book of Alleged Dances" and "Gnarly Buttons"

Both sound like pseudo folk pieces, with vernacular rythms or melodies and they also sound damn hard to play.

The Alleged Dances is written for the Kronos Quartet plus a prepared piano. It consists of eleven short pieces, among which two dedicated to the San Fran streetcars, a Pavane, a Sernade and a Habañera.

Gnarly Buttons is written for clarinetist Michael Collins and the London Sinfonietta. Adams's dad played the clarinet in swing bands in the thirties and forties. The composer inherited his instruments, and perhaps these three pieces are dedecated to the man and his playing.

Both pieces are pretty strange (I just heard a cow in the Hoe Down). It's like it's this box full of all kinds of forgotten things and the composer is just putting his hand in and taking out this little bit and that little end, wondering about time and where it goes.

It's very interesting the way these pieces sound like they're somehow old and used, while in fact they're A) brand new and B) so clearly composed for their dedicatees that chances are slim they'll ever get performed again.

Herman

I have a copy of Hoodoo Zephyr - John Adams experiment with synthesizers - personally I don't find it very inspiring. I have heard a few pieces on the Radio, but they have never really got me that interested.

I would like to see some of the operas - this seems to be where he has got his greatest acclaim.

David