John Adams: Complete Chronological Collection, So Far

"John Coolidge Adams (born 1947) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986), On the Transmigration of Souls (2002), a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003), and Shaker Loops (1978), a minimalist four-movement work for strings. His well-known operas include Nixon in China (1987), which recounts Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China, and Doctor Atomic (2005), which covers Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the building of the first atomic bomb." - Wikipedia

Works in this playlist, with links to introductory articles:

• Christian Zeal and Activity (1973)
• China Gates (1977)
• Phrygian Gates (1977)
• Shaker Loops (1978) Both the string septet and string orchestra version are included.
• Common Tones in Simple Time (1979)
• Harmonium (1980)
• Grand Pianola Music (1982)
• Light Over Water (1983)
• Harmonielehre (1985)
• Nixon in China (1987) Libretto here.
• The Chairman Dances  (1985)
• Tromba Lontana (1986)
• Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986)
• Fearful Symmetries (1988)
• The Wound-Dresser (1989)
• Eros Piano (1989)
• The Black Gondola (1990) Orchestration of Liszt's La lugubre gondola.
• The Death of Klinghoffer (1991)
• Berceuse élégiaque (1991) arrangement for small orchestra of Busoni's Berceuse Élégiaque.
• Choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer (1991)
• El Dorado (1991)
• Chamber Symphony (1992)
• Hoodoo Zephyr (1993)
• Le Livre de Baudelaire (1993) Orchestration of Debussy's Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire.
• Violin Concerto (1993)
• Six Songs by Charles Ives (1993) Arrangements of Ives' songs.
• John's Book of Alleged Dances (1994)
• I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (1995)
• Lollapalooza (1995)
• Road Movies (1995)
• Gnarly Buttons (1996)
• Hallelujah Junction (1996)
• Todo Buenos Aires (1996) Orchestration of Piazzolla's tango.
• Century Rolls (1997)
• Naive and Sentimental Music  (1998)
• El Niño (2000) 
• American Berserk (2001)
• Guide to Strange Places (2001)
• On the Transmigration of Souls (2002)
• The Dharma at Big Sur (2003)
• My Father Knew Charles Ives (2003)
• A Flowering Tree (2006)
• Doctor Atomic Symphony (2007)
• Son of Chamber Symphony (2007)
• String Quartet (2008)

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist: John Adams: Complete Chronological Collection (247 tracks from 45 albums, total time: 28 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view. Try this Nonesuch compilation first if you don't know where to start. Photo from here.

Made In America: Naxos American Classics On Spotify

Before I go for the annual company trip tomorrow, I want to post the longest playlist I created so far. It consists of all recordings from Naxos' American Classics series available on Spotify, 271 of them in total.

"Our highly-acclaimed American Classics series boasts a unique catalogue of both well-known and rarely recorded masterpieces. This landmark series features the greatest American composers both familiar and unfamiliar: Romantics like Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Edward MacDowell; visionary modernists such as Charles Ives and John Cage; buoyant spirits like Sousa, Joplin, Ferde Grofé; figures at today's cutting edge such as John Adams, Philip Glass, John Corigliano, Paul Moravec, William Bolcom and Michael Torke."

The recordings are arranged by composers alphabetically, the same as Naxos' official page, which also provides back covers, composer biographies, album details, and even librettos of the operas. I put the American Classics Sampler at the beginning and the 2-CD set The Story Of American Classical Music at the end.

Here's the Spotify playlist: Naxos: American Classics (3665 tracks, 1.7 weeks) And here's an interesting discussion on this series: Third Rate Music? Personally I like many American composers' works, and feel that they are vastly underrated and underappreciated. On Youtube there's no Rorem symphony, no Zwilich violin concerto, even no decent performance of Barber's wonderful piano concerto. Thanks to Naxos and Spotify we can explore so many new music at ease.