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Every now and then,
we will hear a composer who writes music in such a personal and
intimate way, and yet which is so deeply communcative that it succeeds
in conveying pure emotion without indulgence. Such is the music
of Thomas Adès (b.1971), the "bright new star of British music".
Some have said that since Benjamin Britten (19 -1973), there's been
no one quite like him. I agree, in fact, and I think our "post-modern"
age will be hearing more of this fresh, innovative voice that embraces
the sophistication of Ligeti and Kurtag but shines with the inventiveness
of Mozart.
The music world has
certainly not overlooked this prodigous talent. At 17, he composed
Five Elliot Landscapes, now dubbed his opus 1. At 18, his
Chamber Symphony was played at a Cambridge Festival and later taken
up by the BBC Philharmonic. At age 21, Adès played Still Sorrowing
in London's Purcell Room. On graduating from Cambridge, he joined
the Hallé Orchestra as Resident Composer. In 1993, Living Toys
was written for the London Sinfonietta and has since toured the
world. Adès' first opera Powder her Face (EMI Debut CDS5
56649-2) has been a phenomenal success.
Here is a young composer
who has won accolades and acclaim which took predecessors like Adams,
Crumb and Corigliano a lifetime to accumulate. Don't get me wrong,
my respect for the latter contemporary composers are as great, if
not greater. But this is a new kid on the block who will almost
certainly achieve the same greatness in time, in my humble opinion.
EMI's Debut series continues to feature entire albums of Thomas
Adès' works and performances. In addition to Powder Her Face,
Living Toys (EMI Debut CDZ 5 72271-2) is a collection of
orchestral music while Life Story is a collection of chamber
music.
Catch (1991),
I suspect from the liner notes, is a peformance piece as much as
a chamber composition. Onstage, a violin, cello and piano lure a
clarinet to join them. The clarinet, attracted, thrice walks in
from offstage, twice escapes their cajolements, but at last, with
expressive music at first soft then jubilant, is caught. In the
final bar it takes a seat with them.
This first piece gives
away Adès's peculiar sound, and that element of randomness and a
seemingly improvisatory nature in his work. Though it sounds fairly
random, there is a definite sophistication in the construction of
the work. The raucous nature of the game of "catch" is depicted
by syncopated rhythms and the apparently arbitrary entrances. One
memorable moment occurs a third of the way into the piece when the
offstage clarinet sings a longing melody before being led into the
game again. The final "expressive" passage is simply beautiful,
recapitulating that same clarinet theme in a meditative manner.
Darkness Visible
(1992) and Still Sorrowing (1991-1992) feature Adès himself
on the piano, demonstrating his mastery of the instrument. The composer
is certainly no average pianist, and the rigorous demands of his
own compositions are met with superb technique and a good sense
of musicality and drama.
Darkness Visible
is a rapt recomposition of Dowland's song "In darknesse let me dwell",
and was first performed by the composer in Liszt's house in Budapest
in 1992. Here Adès explores the sonorities of the piano using the
extremes of its range, innovative application of tremolos, contrasting
dynamics and tone clusters in a rich harmonic language.
Still Sorrowing
is unique in its use of a tampered piano (haha) - that is, with
a strip of Blu-Taktm applied to the central range of
the piano strings. This results in a unique, dull sound that to
my ear sounds like hitting tuned bamboo columns. Above and below
this, he uses throbbing bass and sparkling treble of the high notes
on the keyboard. This is quite an amazing sound that one must hear
in order to fully appreciate.
Traced Overhead
(1996) is the most recent work on this disc, and surprisingly, this
extended piano piece is devoid of any of the fancy devices employed
in the prior works. It is a far more mature pianistic work by more
traditional standards, one which the liner notes say is "Chopinesque"
in its Romantic deployment of arabesques, chorales and cantilenas.
I don't actually hear this myself, but the marked difference in
the sound between the three pieces is remarkable, as if the composer
refuses to be confined to one particular style.
One of the interesting
oddities in this potpurri of chamber music is Under Hamelin Hill
(1992), described as an exuberant invention for chamber organ. Personally,
I've never heard this type of music for organ before and thus found
this particlarly interesting. In three movements, the first, Preambulum,
is a sort of a moto perpetuo for the right hand accompanied by strange
rhythms on the left. In the the Fuga, the organist is joined
by two others as if the first organist is the pied piper of folklore,
drawing people by the "piping". The final Arietta is a gloomy
"descending sigh" with rumbling in the lower registers. Quite spooky,
but not my cup of tea.
Finally, the song cycle, Five Elliot Landscapes (1990), Adès'
opus no.1. It is the youthful composer's bizarre responses to colourful
"minor poems" of T.S. Eliot. Each of the five settings is unique,
and hides away ingenuities and witty references - the work of a
prodigious child. The second song "Virginia" is a personal favourite,
beginning with an anguished cry and moving in a strange way. It's
certainly not easy to sing with extended lines on the high registers
and strange sounding vocal effects. The final movement "Cape Ann"
bears the inscription "Hommàge à Messiaen", and evokes birdsong
(a reference to the French composer's Catalogue of Birds).
Above/Right:
"The Endless Enigma" (1938) by Salvador Dali.
The title track Life
Story (1994) is based on Tennessee Williams' poem from "Winter
of Cities". A stark and morbid text about a one-night stand gone
wrong (or as Adès calls it "a tragic snapshot of desperation"),
it is a cool, disturbing setting for soprano, two bass clarinets
and double bass. Here, it is heard in Adès' trenchant piano version.
In a way, this is in the tradition of Barber's Knoxville: Summer
of '69, just more unnerving. Here's a quote from the poem to
give you an idea of what I mean.
Well, one
of you falls asleep
and the other one does likewise with a lighted
cigarette in his mouth
and that's how people burn to death in hotel rooms
This excellent collection
of chamber works is a must-buy, and probably the only recorded performances
of this music so far. The fact that the Debut series is at budget-price
should be a further incentive. This is going to become a collector's
item in time - get it while it's still on the shelves (esp. with
EMI's genocidal tendencies with its catalogue). This is beautiful
music, above and beyond the fact that it is modern. Who says modern
music can't be beautiful anyway?
The writer
would like to acknowledge his debt to Mr. Andrew Porter who penned
the excellent liner notes for the album, from which he has quoted
extensively.
ADRIAN
TAN is an avid supporter of the courtesy campaign on the net...
Smile as you surf! Courtesy begins with your PC.
500:
1999 ©Adrian Tan
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