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Thomas Adès

  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2024: the premières (Part 2)

    by 5:4 September 20, 2024 • 06:00
    September 20, 2024 • 06:00

    Thomas Adès has always tended to be as qualitatively erratic as he is consistently overhyped, but his new orchestral piece Aquifer finds him back on the right side of accomplishment. The title refers to a subterranean stratum through which water can flow, and it’s a superb descriptor for both the …

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  • Premières

    Proms 2022: Thomas Adès – Märchentänze (UK Première)

    by 5:4 August 30, 2022 • 11:01
    August 30, 2022 • 11:01

    A few weeks back in this year’s Proms season, Sally Beamish’s Hive gave the impression that the occasion was aimed at children, and it was much the same listening to Thomas Adès‘ Märchentänze, given its UK première last Friday. Adès is such a strangely unpredictable composer, capable of extremes of …

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  • Festivals

    Proms 2021: Thomas Adès – The Exterminating Angel Symphony

    by 5:4 August 6, 2021 • 13:53
    August 6, 2021 • 13:53

    Last night’s Proms performance of Thomas Adès‘ The Exterminating Angel Symphony wasn’t a première (a so-called “London première” is not a première!) so i’m not technically including it as part of my annual survey of the season’s new works, but there’s a couple of good reasons to say a little …

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  • CommentFestivalsPremières

    Proms 2020: the premières – how you voted

    by 5:4 October 12, 2020 • 12:03
    October 12, 2020 • 12:03

    Many thanks to those of you who voted in this year’s Proms première polls. Not surprisingly, given the circumstances, the turnout was considerably lower than usual, with just under 200 votes cast. Considering that the polls were only open for four weeks this year (instead of the usual 10), and …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2020

    by 5:4 September 13, 2020 • 16:43
    September 13, 2020 • 16:43

    Like most of this year’s festivals the 2020 Proms was cancelled due to the pandemic, with the BBC offering a selection of ‘greatest hits’ from their Proms archive. That itself was pretty interesting, inasmuch as (just like with their broadcasts of Choral Evensong) it revealed how one year’s festival is …

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  • Mixtapes

    Mixtape #49 : Untitled

    by 5:4 September 12, 2018 • 09:58
    September 12, 2018 • 09:58

    For the latest 5:4 mixtape, i’ve turned my attention to that most elusive of artistic statements, the untitled work. When i set out to assemble a shortlist of pieces in my library that had adopted the word ‘untitled’, it wasn’t immediately obvious what i’d find. Yet, with one or two …

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  • ConcertsPremières

    Royal Opera House, London: Thomas Adès – The Exterminating Angel (UK Première)

    by 5:4 April 25, 2017 • 20:26
    April 25, 2017 • 20:26

    Among the plethora of quasi-quotations that litter (and that is the right word) Thomas Adès‘ operatic ‘take’ on Luis Buñuel’s cinematic masterwork El ángel exterminador, there was one quotation missing that, had it appeared at the very start, would have made at least the first two acts make total sense: …

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  • Mixtapes

    Mixtape #38 : Organ

    by 5:4 April 1, 2017 • 10:09
    April 1, 2017 • 10:09

    The theme of the new 5:4 mixtape is one i’ve been wanting to explore for a long while: the organ. It’s an instrument with which i’ve had a pretty infatuated relationship since my teenage years, both as a listener and as a very occasional practitioner (organ was my second study alongside …

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  • ConcertsFestivals

    Cheltenham Music Festival 2016: Moments of Weightlessness, Music for Piano and Film

    by 5:4 July 11, 2016 • 19:32
    July 11, 2016 • 19:32

    Cheltenham Music Festival got both seriously and playfully pianistic on Sunday. And theatrical too, first in a 50-minute dramaturgical discourse from experimental pianist Sarah Nicolls, and later in a recital by Clare Hammond including two works involving film. Nicolls’ Moments of Weightlessness was a genuine curiosity, insofar as it wasn’t …

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  • CommentFestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: the premières – how you voted

    by 5:4 September 23, 2013 • 11:15
    September 23, 2013 • 11:15

    Now that a fortnight has passed since the deafening broohaha of the Last Night, it’s time to look at how you, esteemed readers, have voted in the 5:4 Proms polls. 545 votes were cast this year, and having crunched the results in a variety of ways, here’s a summary of …

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  • FestivalsPremières

    Proms 2013: Thomas Adès – Totentanz (World Première)

    by 5:4 July 18, 2013 • 00:00
    July 18, 2013 • 00:00

    Hot on the heels of the large-scale work of Helmut Lachenmann’s a few days ago, tonight’s Proms première was even more ambitious, Thomas Adès‘ Totentanz. Composed for a large orchestra with mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, Adès has set to music a sequence of German verses known as the Lübecker Totentanz, …

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  • Lent Series

    Thomas Adès – Arcadiana

    by 5:4 February 13, 2013 • 23:01
    February 13, 2013 • 23:01

    Being Ash Wednesday, today marks the start of Lent; last year i spent the season exploring a variety of choral and vocal works, but this year i’m going to focus attention on the string quartet. To begin, one of my favourite contemporary quartets, Thomas Adès‘ Arcadiana, composed in 1994 for …

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  • Lent Series

    Thomas Adès – The Fayrfax Carol

    by 5:4 April 3, 2012 • 19:24
    April 3, 2012 • 19:24

    In many of the hymns and carols sung throughout the Christmas season, alongside the idyllic, intimate nocturnal depictions of stables and shepherds can be found pointed references to the bleak fate of the child lying in the manger. Sometimes, these are sung again during Passiontide, making for a particularly painful …

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  • Premières

    Thomas Adès – Polaris (UK Première)

    by 5:4 February 17, 2012 • 22:18
    February 17, 2012 • 22:18

    At the Barbican this evening, Thomas Adès‘ latest orchestral work, Polaris, was given its UK première by the New York Philharmonic under Alan Gilbert. It’s fortunate indeed that Adès has left behind the ludicrously lavish plaudits that were rained down on him in a ceaseless golden shower throughout the mid- …

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  • Mixtapes

    Mixtape #10 : Melancholia

    by 5:4 February 28, 2009 • 19:55
    February 28, 2009 • 19:55

    Lent: ’tis the season to be dolorous, and so the tenth 5:4 mixtape has melancholia as its theme. Both songs and instrumental music are included, taken from a diverse selection of artists and composers. It begins with the opening of one of the best of William Basinski‘s Disintegration Loops, “d|p …

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  • Mixtapes

    Mixtape #6 : Piano

    by 5:4 May 31, 2008 • 07:48
    May 31, 2008 • 07:48

    For years, the piano has been to me an object of fascination and awe; its range of capabilities, expressive potential and timbral variety are breathtaking. Also for years, these qualities were the very things preventing me from attempting to compose something for it. Listening to piano music is a supreme …

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  • Premières

    Thomas Adès – These Premises Are Alarmed, Concerto Conciso, Asyla (World Premières)

    by 5:4 May 14, 2008 • 19:11
    May 14, 2008 • 19:11

    i’ve been interested in Thomas Adès‘ work for many years, so here are recordings of the world première performances of three of his compositions. The tale behind his miniature orchestral work These Premises Are Alarmed is interesting, if disappointing. Adès was commissioned to compose a piece for the series of …

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  • Lent SeriesSeasonal

    Hoping against hope: Thomas Adès – Gefriolsæ me

    by 5:4 March 17, 2008 • 14:27
    March 17, 2008 • 14:27

    It was at a concert in the spring of 1995 that i first encountered the music of Thomas Adès. The piece was Living Toys, and it was significant to my own development as a composer; i came away from the concert with a new vigour, determination and excitement about the …

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5:4
  • About
    • Other writings
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • Compositions explored on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
    • Festivals reviewed on 5:4
    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
  • Contact
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