Fortissimo Autumn 2019

Adès Dance Spectacular in Los Angeles
Standing ovations greet the premiere of a new Thomas
Adès ballet in Los Angeles.
At its concert premiere by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and
Gustavo Dudamel in May, Adès’s ballet score Inferno elicited huge,
spontaneous applause following its penultimate section. Two months
later, the success was repeated in an ambitious all-Adès dance
production which saw the LA Philharmonic combine forces with
The Royal Ballet and Wayne MacGregor. Conducted by Adès, the
evenings also included Outlier (MacGregor’s existing choreography to
the Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz), and the Company Wayne
MacGregor in new choreography for In Seven Days developed with
AI technology from Google (Kirill Gerstein was the pianist). Inferno
featured striking designs by none other than Tacita Dean.
Lisztiana
The first part of what will become an evening-length ballet based
on Dante’s Divine Comedy, the 45-minute score to Inferno unfolds
over 13 sections. A riotous carnival of the macabre, it is imbued with
the spirit of Liszt. ‘Liszt really owns hell and the demoniacal’ Adès
explained to the LA Times. ‘I looked at what he’d done, and those
sounds that arose in him were still completely live cultures. I could
put them in passages and new things would happen. So the music in
Inferno moves from absolutely 100% me, to 100% Liszt and every
gradation in between. I wanted to have this strange feeling that you
were almost falling down into the past.’
In his first score designed specifically for ballet, Adès demonstrates
in no uncertain terms his total intuitive understanding of writing for
dance. From the arresting opening ‘Abandon Hope’ to the final pages
which depict Satan in the frozen lake, before Dante and Virgil climb
out of Hell and see the stars, Adès keeps us spellbound. A dark-hued
rendering of Liszt’s La Lugubre Gondola ushers in The Ferryman
who rows dead souls across the river Styx whilst extraordinary
orchestrations of the Bagatelle sans tonalité and the Grand Galop
Chromatique transfigure the virtuosic piano writing of the originals
into great visceral riots of orchestral sound, further amplifying the
music’s manic, devilish energies.
‘ambitious and electrifying’
‘Spectacular… Inferno, the first half of what will eventually
be a full-length Dante ballet, makes an uproarious heaven
of hell… It proved the most ambitious and electrifying of
more than five-dozen commissions celebrating the Los
Angeles Philharmonic’s centennial season and a bonanza
for choreographer Wayne McGregor… McGregor’s style fits
Adès’ well. The choreographer’s characteristic mix of fluid
movement and sudden change of direction for this limb
or that, effortless lifts that suggest flight, limn the bigger
gestures of the music… Dean’s cavernous black-and-white
backdrop was remarkable for its ability to change character
through inventive lighting design… Each movement has a
vivid musical character, with Adès’ flamboyant and whimsical
take on Liszt appearing to be what interested McGregor
most… The wildly galloping thieves at the end were a
showpiece of whirling dervishes transformed into rocketpropelled
worms.’
The LA Times (Mark Swed), 14 July 2019
Inferno will form the first part of a whole evening choreographed by
Wayne McGregor for the Royal Ballet in London entitled The Dante
Project which opens on 6 May 2020. Adès will conduct and Tacita
Dean will once again design sets and costumes.
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PHOTOS: INFERNO (PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY CRAIG MATHEW IMAGING AT THE WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATION)