One of the big hits of the 1980-81 San Francisco Symphony season was the world premiere of a work by Bay Area composer John Adams, a Harvard graduate now teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His settings of texts by John Donne (“Negative Love”) and Emily Dickinson (“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” & “Wild Nights” ) for chorus and full orchestra has set a new direction for the course of repetitive (or minimal) music, a style initiated by Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Phil Glass, and LaMonte Young. The impulsive energy of the performances, led by Maestro Edo de Waart, are brilliantly captured in this recording made at Davies Symphony Hall on April 17, 1981 by KQED engineer Fred Krock. (from KPFA Folio) Adams joins Charles Amirkhanian to discuss the music as well as his work with the San Francisco Symphony’s New and Unusual Music series which he directs and which was about to launch its second season, the recordings of which are also available on radiom.org.

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