Composer Focus: Thomas Adès

In recent years composer-conductor Thomas Adès has become an unstoppable creative force. In this LSO composer focus series he conducts his own works alongside the music that influenced and informed his development as a composer.

Adès’ striking ‘voyage for orchestra’ Polaris is inspired by the magnetic pole-star, with its harmonies rotating hypnotically around a central pitch. Brahms’ legendary Violin Concerto is then performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter in anticipation of Adès’ own work Brahms for Baritone and Orchestra. Brahms is an ‘anti-homage’ to the composer inspired by the cold logic of his music, taking his compositional compulsions to extreme conclusions.

The programme closes with Adès’ one-movement symphony Tevot. As ever with Adès the dual meaning of the title is key to understanding the work fully, in this case ‘Tevot’ is both the Hebrew for ‘bars of music’ and used in the Bible to refer to Noah’s ark. Over its one-movement span the listener is guided through a monumental journey contrasting moments of incredible turbulence with sudden stasis and calm.