An interview with John Adams

Venturing into contemporary classical

John Adams (Creative Commons photo, credit.)

Although the main purpose of this publication will be to celebrate the Russian composers known as the Russian Futurists, I also will want to write about contemporary classical from time to time and maybe even other kinds of music, as the occasion arises. For example, I want to make sure everyone has a chance to know about Tyler Cowen’s recent interview of John Adams, part of the wide-ranging “Conversations With Tyler” podcast.

Adams was the first contemporary composer I ever discovered and his music remains important to me. Tyler calls Adams “arguably America’s greatest living composer” and that seems like a reasonable statement to me. The interview covers a wide range of subjects and Tyler also draws Adams out on some of the composer’s best-known works. Note that the big Collected Works box set of Adams’ music which Tyler mentions is available free on Hoopla Digital, which most Americans with a public library card can access.

There’s a lot of discussion about why contemporary classical music doesn’t get more attention from listeners; surely one problem is that while there are plenty of pretty good living composers, there aren’t that many truly great ones. When I wrote to Tyler about how much I enjoyed the interview, I mentioned that I had tried to think of great composers who are currently alive, and had only come up with three: John Adams, Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich. Tyler replied, “Helmut Lachenmann I also quite like, at least at times. Caroline Shaw I am increasingly fond of, time will tell there but I am hopeful.”