New York, NY (Top40 Charts) John Adams's new album, City Noir, which includes the 2009 title track, inspired by LA "noir" films of the 1940s and '50s, and the debut recording of his 2012 Saxophone Concerto, has made NPR's list of the Ten Best Classical Albums of 2014, as chosen by NPR's Tom Huizenga and
Anastasia Tsioulcas.
"This year's highlights were so above and beyond that without any discussion, we each picked seven of the same releases," writes Tsioulcas, describing the process behind their list. "[T]here was such a bounty of phenomenal albums released this year that the selection process was a joy."
Both pieces on Adams's new album are performed by the St. Louis Symphony led by
David Robertson, featuring saxophonist Timothy McAllister.
The album "pairs the orchestral City Noir (a cinematic, jazzy and cool homage to 1940s and '50s Los Angeles) and the fresh and exciting Saxophone Concerto featuring the outstanding Timothy McAllister," writes Tsioulcas. "The performances by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, led by
David Robertson, are invigorating and top-notch."
City Noir has been nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best Engineered Album, Classical, for engineer Richard King and mastering engineer Wolfgang Schiefermair, and Best Orchestral Performance.
The New York Times's classical music critic Anthony Tommasini has published his list of the Ten Best Classical
Music Events of 2014. Among them is The Metropolitan Opera premiere of John Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer, which was also conducted by
David Robertson.
"After all the controversy, and the demonstrations from hundreds of protesters, audiences at the Metropolitan Opera were finally able to hear The Death of Klinghoffer rather than just hear about it," Tommasini writes. "In the Met's grimly realistic production, by Tom Morris, the composer John Adams's opera, with a libretto by Alice Goodman, came across as a searing yet ruminative work that explores a horrific event and the seething tensions behind it.
David Robertson conducted magnificently."
The New Yorker's classical music critic includes the opera in his list of notable performances this year as well; you can read that at newyorker.com.
