Death of Klinghoffer

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
In The Death of Klinghoffer (1991), John Adams turns his cascading minimalism to the tragedy of the Achille Lauro. This spacious recording makes grand what seems so minor in the great scheme of things: a group of terrorists hijack an ocean liner and kill a wheelchair-bound Jewish retiree, Leon Klinghoffer. If the conceit of Adams' earlier opera, Nixon in China, seems a bit incredulous (Richard Nixon as opera subject?), The Death of Klinghoffer is genuine tragedy--Greek chorus and all. Alice Goodman is the librettist. This is one of the 20th century's best operas. A must. --Paul Cook

Tracks:

Lollapalooza
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Judah To Ocean
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Toot Nipple
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Dogjam
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Pavane: She's So Fine
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Rag The Bone
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Habanera
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Stubble Crotchet
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Hammer & Chisel
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Alligator Escalator
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Standchen: The Little Serenade
John's Book Of Alleged Dances: Judah To Ocean (Reprise)
Slonimsky's Earbox

Tracks:

Two Fanfares For Orchestra - Tromba Lontana
Two Fanfares For Orchestra - Short Ride In A Fast Machine
Common Tones In Simple Time
El Dorado - Part I. A Dream Of Gold
El Dorado - Part II. Soledades

Tracks:

Harmonielehre - Part I
Harmonielehre - Part II The Anfortas Wound
Harmonielehre - Part III Meister Eckhardt And Quackie
Violin Concerto - Part I
Violin Concerto - Part II Chaconne:
Violin Concerto - Part III Toccare

Tracks:

Chamber Sympony - Mongel Airs
Chamber Sympony - Aria With Walking Bass
Chamber Sympony
Hoodo Zephyr - Tundra
Hoodo Zephyr - Dissappointment Lake
Hoodo Zephyr - Hoodo Zephyr
Gnarly Buttons - The Perilous Shore
Gnarly Buttons - Hoe-Down (Mad Cow)
Gnarly Buttons - Put Your Loving Arms Around Me

Tracks:

Ensemble - I Was Looking At The Ceiling And Then I Saw The Sky
A Sermon On Romance
Consuelo's Dream
Mike's Song About Arresting A Particular Individual
Tiffany's Solo
Song About The On-Site Altercation
Song About The Bad Boys And The News
Your Honor My Client He's A Young Black Man
Leila's Song; Alone (Again Or At Last)
Three Weeks And Still I'm Outta My Mind
Crushed By The Rock I Been Standing On
Dewain's Song Of Liberation And Surprise
!Este Pais! / This Country
One Last Look At The Angel In Your Eyes
Finale

Tracks:

Lollapalooza
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Judah To Ocean
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Toot Nipple
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Dogjam
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Pavane: She's So Fine
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Rag The Bone
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Habenera
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Stubble Crotchet
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Hammer & Chisel
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Alligator Escalator
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Standchen: The Little Serenade
John's Book Of Alleged Dances - Judah To Ocean (Reprise)
Slonimsky's Earbox

Tracks:

Harmonium - Negative Love
Harmonium - Becuase I Could Not Stop For Death
Harmonium - Wild Nights
Shaker Loops - Shaking and Trambling
Shaker Loops - Hymning Slews
Shaker Loops - Loops and Verses
Shaker Loops - A Final Shaking

Tracks:

The Chairman Dances - Foxtrot For Orchestra
Grand Pianola Music - First Movement
Grand Pianola Music - Second Movement
Grand Pianola Music - Third Movement: On The Dominant Divide
Fearful Symmetries

Tracks:

Nixon In China - Opening
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China - Landing Of The Spirit Of '76
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China - Cheers
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China - Opening
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -
Nixon In China -

Tracks:

The Wound-Dresser
Christian Zeal And Activity
Five Songs - Thoreau
Five Songs - Down East
Five Songs - Cradle Song
Five Songs - At The River
Five Songs - Serenity
Eros Piano

Amazon.com

Having earned his composing stripes after the 1960s, John Adams had the pioneering work of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Terry Riley close at hand as he ventured into his trade. And, while minimalism's historical continuum helps place Adams, he used Reich, Glass, and Riley (among others) only as a starting point. And here's proof: a 10-CD retrospective of nearly all Adams's recorded compositions on Nonesuch Records, the label that also issued Steve Reich 1965-1995 and Kronos Quartet: 25 Years. Adams's Harmonium, a choral work of startling energy and effervescence, appears here in a new recording, as do distillations of both The Death of Klinghoffer and Nixon in China, two path-clearing operas. Over the span of a career covered by Earbox, Adams has returned minimalism to traditional instrumental ensembles as well as to projects that at once advanced a political commentary and took that commentary back to orchestral audiences. And so, in far less time than his predecessors, Adams created works that now play like standard repertoire pieces: The Wound Dresser and Shaker Loops and the Violin Concerto--all of them are here. What these works demonstrate is a fierce creativity on the one hand and perhaps a hunger for commercial advances on the other. Adams may at times be a bustling free thinker, but he sounds ever conscious of what audiences are listening to. As for the works themselves, they remain every bit as daunting as when written.

Some may object to particular selections. I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, for example, hardly ranks with Adams's best work. But this box isn't a mere best-of; it's an almost-all-of. At times terrifically American--especially in the news-aware operas and their narrative pragmatism--Adams well deserves a major box set, and its coverage is appropriate to his varied, stylistically diverse output. As with any large-scale retrospective, Earbox--which fairly bristles with Adams's new composition, Slonimsky's Earbox--has spots where fans might balk at the quality of the composer's writing. But it's got a fantastic accompanying booklet along with its many hours of inarguably modern and thoroughly listener-friendly music. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

Moved to tears.......2004-03-18

Never before in my life was i moved so intensely and directly by classical music. I put the first cd in my player and a few minutes later tears are flowing. I find myself dancing and moving to a rythm i already seem to know. Wow, i just have to share that.

Nonesuch delivers.Again.......2002-11-27

John adams is one of the most popular living composers of"modern" classical music[I believe the cutoff point, though arbitrary is usually WWII}.I came to him late, through my husband. Modersn classical music , I said? What the hell is that?My husband kept playing bits and pieces of adams for me, and more and more i found myself amazed. and swayed. His operas have been groundbreaking{Nixon in China} controversial{Death Of klinghoffer},his compostions sublimely beautiful{shaker Loops or harmonium].HIS STATURE IS WORTHY THEN OF SUCH A MONUMENTAL CAREER SPANNING BOX SET.This 10 disc set[great value, again from NONESUCH}encompasses Adams' entire career,and though there are some misses here{I was looking at the ceiling and then i saw the sky doesnt quite fit},it is still magnificent. the Highlights are ,{for me} the Wound Dresser, Chamber symphony,Violin Concerto, of course, Shaker Loops and Harmonuim are wonderful. The true jewels here are Nixon in China,the Chairman dances and the Death of Klinghoffer,which is simply a masterpiece. The set comes with a wonderful book, which contains essay's by Robert Hurwitz {An Uncommon Man}renaud Machart[John adams as seen from europe} and Essays before an earbox by Adams himself.A Chronology and dicography are included. A wonderful study of an American original,worth the investment, Highly highly recommended

harmonia in excelsis.......2001-11-12

I must agree with Mr. Bartlett, particularly with regard to "Ceiling." It may well be because his Violin Concerto and Harmonielehre are so powerful. 4.5 stars.
Interesting, and likely intentional, is that two names in the extensive liner book fail to mention two great and glaringly obvious precursors: Carl Orff and Raymond Scott. Without "Carmina Burana," there would be no "Harmonium." Orff has his mark all over Adams's gifted and epic compositions. Similarly, though there are glib references to "cartoon music," the polymath engineer/musician Scott is a seminal figure in American music, and casts a large shadow over the witty juxtapositions and sense of play one loves in Adams's work. In all, an excellent career overview.

Our greatest living composer.......2001-07-22

As a composer, I'm staggered that anyone could fail to be gripped by this music.

That anyone can use the words "spoiled, overrated" amazes me. I emphatically disagree with "A music fan"'s review.

I don't think it's "mind-numbing"; I think it's spiritual and exciting. To me it's the most substantial music being created in our times.

I'm really sorry that anyone could fail to enjoy it, and really recommend others to listen for themselves.

Wonderful CD.......2000-04-02

This compilation should turn even the most curmudgeonly listerner into a fan. Beautifully recorded, great notes -- and it's a heck of a bargain!

Harmonium/Choruses from the Death of Klinghoffer

Average customer rating:

Thought this would never happen!
Glorious Music

Harmonium/Choruses from the Death of Klinghoffer

Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Choruses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Minimal Techno | Techno | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Fearful Symmetries/The Wound-Dresser
John Adams - Harmonielehre · The Chairman Dances · Tromba lontana · Short Ride in a Fast Machine / Sir Simon Rattle
Adams: Violin Concerto/Shaker Loops
Adams: Harmonium
John Adams: Harmonielehre

ASIN: B000025AQL
Release Date: 2000-06-20

Tracks:

Harmonium: I. Negative Love
Harmonium: II. Because I Could Not Stop For Death
Harmonium: III. Wild Nights
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Chorus Of The Exiled Palestinians
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Chorus Of The Exiled Jews
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Ocean Chorus
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Night Chorus
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Chorus Of Hagar And The Angel
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Desert Chorus
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Day Chorus

Amazon.com

If anything, this disc conveys John Adams's ability to make the difficult sound simple and easy. It also extends Nonesuch's tendency to issue rerecordings that appear first in box sets. Harmonium came out in 1984 on an ECM disc, played by the same ensemble but under the direction of Edo de Waart, with whom Adams developed a fruitful working relationship in the late 1970s. The Klinghoffer Choruses simply excerpts the Nonesuch recording of the opera. Both can be found in the John Adams Earbox, the sort of collection that the label has already lavished on Steve Reich.

What makes this disc sound simple is the composer's tasteful West Coast minimalism--its listener-friendly impatience with unvarying repetition; spare, keyboards-enhanced instrumentation; and generally mellow sound. Harmonium remains Adams's breakthrough work, his first big statement of consonant harmony. He became famous with it. What Adams makes apparently easy is the bringing together--the harmonizing, if you will--of disparate parts: very personal lyric poetry by two very different writers, John Donne and Emily Dickinson, sung by a choral group rather than soloists. And it works. Like the Nonesuch recording of Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach, the new Harmonium has been lovingly performed, but necessarily lacks something of the brazenness, the unexpected quality of the earlier one, the sense of having to prove itself. The choruses from the "CNN opera" The Death of Klinghoffer (certainly a tough subject) slow down stage action significantly; they're more effective on their own. Highly chromatic, delicate, and melancholy, these two works showcase Adams's thoughtful side, and remain unabashedly beautiful. --Robert Burns Neveldine

Customer Reviews:

Thought this would never happen!.......2000-06-27

For some years now one of my favorite "New Works" recorded has been the "Harmonium" of John Adams as recorded also by the San Francisco Symphony but under the baton of Edo de Waart. Time, and the increasing stature of the quality of playing of this orchestra under Tilson Thomas' nurturing, give Adams as conductor of his own work a spaciously beautiful contemplation on the words of Emily Dickinson and John Donne. The chorus is eminently worthy of plaudits for tone and diction. And to add Kent Nagano's travels with Klinghoffer.....all this makes for a disc well worth the wait. Extraordinary!

Glorious Music.......2000-06-25

What a treat, to listen to John Adams' first masterwork in a new recording, conducted by Adams himself. The San Francisco Symphony play as beautifully as ever, and the choral performance is excellent. The sound is clear, and the album is perfectly produced, with very informative liner notes. The Choruses from Klinghoffer are expertly performed, as well, but seem rather like filler, as if they were thrown on the album so as to create a CD Adams' choral music. Couldn't something else have been used instead, like Century Rolls, or Naive And Sentimental Music, two Adams works yet to hit CD?Minor quibbles aside, this is a splendid CD, and a worthy addition to anyone's music library.

John Adams - The Death of Klinghoffer / Nagano, The Orchestra of the Opera de Lyon

Average customer rating:

A great Opera!
No heroes, only pawns....
Great as an oratorio--not as an opera
Good Opera Based Upon Unpleasant Subject
Buy this CD.

John Adams - The Death of Klinghoffer / Nagano, The Orchestra of the Opera de Lyon
John Adams , Janice Felty , Stephanie Friedman , Thomas Hammons , and Kent Nagano
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

English | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Operettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Minimal Techno | Techno | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Nixon in China
John Adams - El Nino / Hunt-Lieberson, Upshaw, W. White, Nagano
On the Transmigration of Souls
Adams - Death of Klinghoffer / Randle, Sylvan, Howard, Maltman, Boutros, Melrose, Bickley, LSO
Adams: Violin Concerto/Shaker Loops

ASIN: B000005J1B
Release Date: 1992-11-17

Tracks:

The Death Of Klinghoffer: Chorus Of Exiled Palestinians
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Chorus Of Exiled Jews
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 1: It Was Just After One Fifteen (The Captain)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 1: My Grandson Didi, Who Was Two (Swiss Grandmother)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 1: Give These Orders (Molqi)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 1: So I Said To My Grandson (Swiss Grandmother)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 1: We Are Sorry For You (Mamound)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 1: Ocean Chorus
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 2: Now It Is Night (The Captain)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 2: I Think If You Could Talk Like This (The Captain)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 2: I Have Often Reflected That This Is No Ship (The Captain)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 2: I Kept My Distance (Austrian Woman)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 2: Those Birds Flying Above Us (Mamoud)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act I, Scene 2: Night Chorus

Tracks:

The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II: Hagar Chorus
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 1: Come here. Look. (Molqi)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 1: I've Never Been A Violent Man (Leon Klinghoffer)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 1: You Are Always Complaining Of Your Suffering (Rambo)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 1: I Must Have Been Hysterical British Dancing Girl)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 1: It Is As If Our Earthly Life Were Spent Miserably (Omar)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 1: Desert Chorus
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 2: My One Consolation (Marilyn Klinghoffer)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 2: Klinghoffer's Death
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 2: Every Fifteen Minutes, One More Will Be Shot (Mamoud)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 2: Aria Of The Falling Body
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 2: Day Chorus
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 3: Mrs. Klinghoffer, Please Sit Down (The Captain)
The Death Of Klinghoffer: Act II, Scene 3: You Embraced Them! (Marily Klinghoffer)

Amazon.com essential recording

In The Death of Klinghoffer (1991), John Adams turns his cascading minimalism to the tragedy of the Achille Lauro. This spacious recording makes grand what seems so minor in the great scheme of things: a group of terrorists hijack an ocean liner and kill a wheelchair-bound Jewish retiree, Leon Klinghoffer. If the conceit of Adams' earlier opera, Nixon in China, seems a bit incredulous (Richard Nixon as opera subject?), The Death of Klinghoffer is genuine tragedy--Greek chorus and all. Alice Goodman is the librettist. This is one of the 20th century's best operas. A must. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

A great Opera!.......2007-01-10

This is one of the best operas from late XXth century... a real drama, very delicate. The music is superb and the vocal treatment is really a beauty.
No doubt - John Adams is the most important North American Living composer

No heroes, only pawns...........2001-09-01

The Death Of Klinghoffer by John Adams is to my mind one of the great musical and dramatic works of the last 25 years. I heard it in Brooklyn and in San Francisco live in its first outings, and having now heard the cd's for the 1000th time, I am still blown away by the power of this score, especially in its choral writing and in its sheer beauty. Minimalist techniques are (as in Nixon in China) put at the service of the drama, and melody and achingly beautiful passages only heighten the impact of the piece. Most of all, we are reminded in this work that this is a trgedy on multiple levels: for Klinghoffer and his wife, for the captain and guests, and, above all, for the people whose lives are dominated and shaped by the ongoing, ugly and seemingly intractable -- not to mention ungodly -- conflict that won't be resolved by those that carry weapons. The backdrop of the dispute is that there are no heroic figures, no saviors, only tragic pawns and a huge array of victims. Adams brings to this sensitivity, beauty, and, sadly, an acknowledgment of the despair the world feels about the Middle East. When you listen to the choral passages, there's a level of pain mixed with anger that is truly remarkable -- something rarely found in music and opera, except in, perhaps, Fidelio, and there only fleetingly. This opera is a must for those who not only love music, but also those who say they revere and respect human life. As Henze's libretto for The Raft of the Frigate 'Medusa" concludes (paraphrased): "Those who remained, went on to change the world." That's what our response to hearing this music should be, since Marilyn Klinghoffer's rage at the end of the opera is interwoven with the same sense of sorrow and pain heard in the choral passages: how else do you rectify sorrow and pain but by struggling to change that which causes it?

Great as an oratorio--not as an opera.......2001-05-14

John Adams' and Alice Goodman's follow-up work to their splendid NIXON IN CHINA was this, a very somber and sober envisioning of the hijacking of the Achille Lauro in the mid-Eighties. The work has some of Adams's most beautiful music to date, with choruses of tremendous power (particularly the opening paired choruses and the terrifying "Night" chorus), arias of undeniable facility and charm ("I must have been hysterical") and of great dramatic power (Marilyn's furious indictment "You embraced them!", which closes the work). Unfortunately, the various pieces don't seem at all of a unified whole--Adams keeps changing modes from set piece to set piece, and the thing doesn't really breathe. It doesn't help matters that the work is set retrospectively so that none of the characters seem to live the past, only to remember them; or that Goodman's libretto is much less fluid than her previously supple work for NIXON. (In KLINGHOFFER, the awkwardness of Goodman's words are best demonstrated by the fact that almost each chorus begins with the dreadful syntactic construction "Is not the...?"). The overall sense is of a work with tremendous poignancy and potential that sometimes veers into pretentiousness, without the humor and drama that finally makes NIXON a superior operative outing.

Good Opera Based Upon Unpleasant Subject.......2001-01-18

The terrorist takeover of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and the vicious murder of wheelchair-bound passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, would appear to be a most unpleasant subject for operatic treatment. Having said that, however, it must be acknowledged that musically the opera works quite well. If there is one criticism, it is that the work appears to accord some modicum of credibility to the terrorists, which they in no way deserve.

Buy this CD........2000-05-07

Adams music in KLINGHOFFER is, as always, beautiful and sensitive. Fans of his previous work for voice THE WOUND-DRESSER will be pleased; as will fans of Adams's more energetic electronic music. His orchestral incorporation of the synthesizer is tasteful, and gives the orchestration a surreal, mythological sheen. Unfortunately, Nagano's conducting doesn't bring out many of the subtle nuances of Adams's score; there are many sub-themes and rhythmic quirks that often get lost in recordings of Adams that seem to get drowned out in this recording. There should be more live performances of this opera, but until then, buy this CD.

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