John Adams

John Adams: Antony and Cleopatra review – European premiere fuelled by molten chemistry

In his ambitious and richly orchestrated 2022 opera, the American composer makes Shakespeare his own, with a star cast to match

Fiona Maddocks

04, Nov, 2023 @12:30 PM

BBCNOW/Bancroft review – Adams’ colossal Harmonielehre is full of colour, drama and life

Ryan Bancroft and the National Orchestra of Wales were superb in works by Ives and Adams; Szymanowki’s glittering Violin Concerto, a less obvious choice for the “American” programme, was passionately realised by Bomsori Kim

Rian Evans

21, Apr, 2023 @12:05 PM

Classical home listening: Igor Levit takes on Tristan; an ideal John Adams primer

Levit ranges from Wagner to Henze with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, while Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich celebrate their artist-in-residence

Fiona Maddocks

17, Sep, 2022 @11:00 AM

Conrad Tao review – full-blooded piano playing with a dash of quirk

Tao’s programme exploited his talents to the full, including a ‘pandemic repertoire’ of Beethoven, Adams and Tao himself

Andrew Clements

14, Jul, 2022 @1:53 PM

Classical home listening: John Adams Collected Works

Bonus extras make Nonesuch’s 40-disc box set of the prolific American composer well worth the investment

Fiona Maddocks

02, Jul, 2022 @11:00 AM

Philharmonia/Labèque Sisters review – intensive immersion in Philip Glass

Replacing a live-accompanied screening of Koyaanisqatsi, this programme was intoxicating, thrilling and clearly exhausting to perform

Flora Willson

22, Oct, 2021 @11:36 AM

Adams: My Father Knew Charles Ives; Harmonielehre review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week

John Adams’s work, imagining a musical meeting of minds, sounds refined, though Harmonielehre is missing some majesty

Andrew Clements

21, Jan, 2021 @3:00 PM

From Vivaldi to Vaughan Williams: more musical voices who have changed our world

Over the past few months, our Know the Score series introduced 20 great composers. But what of the many we couldn’t write about? Martin Kettle suggests some other names whose music is well worth exploring

Martin Kettle

25, Nov, 2020 @1:36 PM

Nixon in China review – a gripping human drama

The seismic 1972 meeting of Mao Zedong and Richard Nixon, as depicted in John Adams’s inspired 1987 opera, still resonates in Scottish Opera’s potent new staging

Fiona Maddocks

22, Feb, 2020 @12:00 PM

Nixon in China review – slick update for tale of Tricky Dicky's schmoozing

Scottish Opera brings an inventive postmodern eye to its revival of John Adams’s retelling of Nixon’s 1972 state visit

Rowena Smith

19, Feb, 2020 @2:39 PM

Madonna, Motown and Mongolian metal: the music to listen out for in 2020

The queen of pop gets intimate, Taylor Swift feels the sunshine and Stormzy takes on the world … plus, classical celebrations begin for Beethoven’s 250th

Alexis Petridis and Andrew Clements

01, Jan, 2020 @11:00 AM

The best classical music works of the 21st century

Over the coming week, the Guardian will select the greatest culture since 2000, carefully compiled by critics and editors. We begin with a countdown of defining classical music compositions, from X-rated opera to high-tech string quartets

Andrew Clements, Fiona Maddocks. John Lewis, Kate Molleson, Tom Service, Erica Jeal and Tim Ashley

12, Sep, 2019 @4:20 PM