Fortissimo Autumn 2019

Thomas Adès
Forthcoming
performances
Asyla
12.9.19, Konserthuset, Malmö,
Sweden: Malmö Symphony
Orchestra/Robert Trevino
Three Studies from
Couperin
13.9.19, Ultima Festival, Oslo,
Norway: Norwegian Radio Orchestra/
Geoffrey Paterson
3-4.10.19, Opéra National de
Bordeaux, France: Orchestre National
de Bordeaux/Paul Daniel
17.10.19, Sibelius Hall, Lahti, Finland:
Marko Ylönen/Lahti Symphony
Orchestra/Leo McFall
21.11.19, Kuopio Music Hall, Finland:
Kuopio Symphony Orchestra/
Jessica Cottis
Japanese premiere
8-9.12.19, Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo,
Japan: Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony
Orchestra/Alan Gilbert
Concerto for Piano
and Orchestra
Danish premiere
3.10.19, Koncerthuset DR Byen,
Copenhagen, Denmark: Kirill
Gerstein/Danish Radio Symphony
Orchestra/Nicholas Collon
11-12.10.19, Severance Hall,
Cleveland, OH, USA: Kirill Gerstein/
Cleveland Orchestra/Alan Gilbert
UK premiere
23.10.19, Royal Festival Hall,
Southbank Centre, London, UK:
Gerstein/London Philharmonic
Orchestra/Adès
Finnish premiere
29.11.19, Music Centre, Helsinki,
Finland: Gerstein/Helsinki
Philharmonic Orchestra/Adès
27-28.2.20, Herkulessaal, Munich,
Germany: Gerstein/Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra/Adès
Netherlands premiere
19-21.3.20, Concertgebouw,
Amsterdam, Netherlands: Gerstein/
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/
Adès
2-4.4.20, Walt Disney Concert Hall,
Los Angeles, CA, USA: Gerstein/LA
Philharmonic Orchestra/Adès
Luxury Suite from
Powder Her Face
Netherlands premiere
10-12.10.19, Het Concertgebouw,
Amsterdam, Netherlands: Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra/Adès
Violin Concerto
6,8.12.19, Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, PA,
USA: Augustin Hadelich/Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä
7.12.19, Royal Festival Hall, London,
UK: Anthony Marwood/London
Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew
Manze
14.2.20, Music Centre, Helsinki,
Finland: Pekka Kuusisto/Finnish
Radio Symphony Orchestra/Nicholas
Collon
29.3.20, Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg,
Germany: Leila Josefowicz/NDR
Elbphilharmonie Orchester/Krzsystof
Urbanksi
12
Thomas Adès
Piano Concerto
After the rapturous response at its world premiere with
the Boston Symphony (its sole commissioner) in March,
and its European premiere with the Leipzig Gewandhaus
in April, many expected that Thomas Adès’s Concerto
for Piano and Orchestra was set to enter the repertoire.
What no-one could have predicted, however, was the
astonishing and unprecedented speed with which it has
been taken up by orchestras. At the time of writing there
are 35 forthcoming performances planned – all with Kirill
Gerstein, the pianist who premiered it, at the keyboard.
In October Nicholas Collon will conduct the concerto
with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, swiftly
followed by Alan Gilbert and the Cleveland Orchestra. In
the 19/20 season alone, Adès will conduct the work’s UK
premiere with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and
further performances with the Helsinki Philharmonic,
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal
Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the LA Philharmonic.
This audacious 22-minute work (Adès third concertante
work with piano) is almost bewildering in its wealth of
invention. Throughout its three movements a highly
sophisticated yet vital approach to rhythmic feel is married
to a totally personal harmonic sense, and the resulting
work is by turns playful, sombre, rowdy and ravishingly
beautiful. Adès and Gerstein have worked together many
times, both in concertos and as duo partners, and the solo
writing is tailor-made for the latter’s combination of jawdropping
virtuosity and musical intelligence.
‘The Adès’s soundworld is as exciting as it is
individual… With the European premiere of this
concerto the Gewandhaus have landed a real
coup… It begins with a timpani upbeat followed by
a memorable piano motif – full of earworm potential
– that is passed through the orchestra, its many
facets questioned by Gerstein in a stupendous
virtuoso manner. The unanimous enthusiasm of the
audience proved that this fantastic concerto will
quickly be taken up by other orchestras.’
Bachtrack (Michael Vieth), 26 April 2019
PHOTO: THOMAS ADÈS © BRIAN VOCE
‘Gerstein is ideally cast to explore the pristine
sensuality of this outwardly traditional yet modern
concerto… After an initial timpani beat as a starting
signal, the thoroughbred virtuoso is immediately
in his element in the Allegramente with its double
octaves, glissandi and crazy trills. Such spectacles
never remain and end in themselves, but are
integrated into powerful lines, wide arcs of a
gigantic orchestral kaleidoscope… It certainly isn’t
the last time we will hear this piece…’
Leipziger Volkszeitung (Werner Kopfmüller), 26 April 2019
‘O Albion’ for string orchestra
Ever since its premiere in 1994, Adès’s first string quartet,
Arcadiana has been captivating audiences with its stunning
evocations idylls vanishing, vanished, or imaginary. Its
6 commercial recordings to-date demonstrate just how
successful it is in fusing contemporary sonority, formal
familiarity and imaginative depth.
Of all the quartet’s movements it is ‘O Albion’ that has
most captured the imagination of listeners: seventeen
sighing, devotissimo bars in E-flat (the key of Elgar’s
Nimrod). Last year the vocal consort Voces 8 recorded a
version for Decca and now, due to many requests from
performers, Adès has made an arrangement for string
orchestra. It was commissioned by The Orchestra of the
Swan (and partners) and will be premiered by them at
Theatre No.8, Pershore, on 15 October.
Three Berceuses in Verbier
Adès has created a set of Three Berceuses from The
Exterminating Angel for viola and piano. They have
been commissioned for Lawrence Power, by the Verbier
Festival; Moritzburg Festival; BBC Radio 3; Aspen
Festival; UKARIA Cultural Centre, South Australia;
Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam; and underwritten by
The Viola Commissioning Circle. Power gave the premiere
at Verbier in July when he was joined by pianist George Li.
The pieces – which last 9 minutes in total – are exclusive to
Power until July 2021.
The Berceuses include some of the opera’s most exquisite
music – the first two drawing on the yearning melancholy
duets of the doomed lovers Beatrice and Egardo, the last a
version of Silvia’s eerie berceuse macabre from Act III.
An Angel Symphony
In May 2020 the City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla will premiere the
Angel Symphony. Drawing on Adès’s extraordinary score
to The Exterminating Angel, the work will be around
20 minutes long and has been commissioned by the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland
Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Kölner Philharmonie, Helsinki
Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestra of Spain and
the Barbican Centre.
Other forthcoming projects include a set of violin-piano
pieces and a work for string orchestra.