I think we first heard it on a Met broadcast many years ago. I thought the price for the original John Adams recording was a bit heavy and was pleased when the Marin Alsop recording became available, and it`s pretty good. a couple of years later John Adams and most of the original singers did it at the Proms and its was superb so I went out and sprang for his recording.
I enjoy his later works, Klinghoffer, Doctor Atomic and others but I think Nixon will always be his masterpiece.
Strange how many emminent composers have a success with their early works that is not bettered later, Britten, Tippett, Carlisle Floyd for instance.