Harmonielehre

Commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, this massive orchestral work decisively broke John Adams out of the strict confines of pure minimalism. 'Harmonielehre' dramatically fuses the repetitive, pulsing structures of Steve Reich and Philip Glass with the sweeping, emotional harmonic language of late-Romantic composers like Mahler and Wagner. The ambitious, three-movement symphony remains one of the most widely performed and celebrated American classical compositions of the late 20th century.