Thomas Adès (b. 1971)
Shanty – Over the Sea (2020)
Dawn – Chacony for Orchestra at Any Distance (2020)
Tower – for Frank Gehry (2021)
Aquifer (2024)
William Marsey (b. 1989)
Man with a Limp Wrist (2023)
Oliver Leith (b. 1990)
Cartoon Sun (2024)
Hallé/Thomas Adès
rec. 2024, Bridgewater Hall and Hallé St. Peter’s, Manchester, UK
Hallé CDHLL7567 [68]
All of the works on this disc have a direct connection to Thomas Adès. They were composed while he was artist-in-residence with the Hallé and he conducted each of them, as he does here. He has championed both of the younger composers. Of the four pieces Adès himself contributes, the most recent, Aquifer, is a real masterpiece. It has much in common with two earlier works, Tevot and Polaris in its form—almost a one-movement symphony. While the rest of the programme consists of shorter works, they are all interesting and sometimes more than that. As far as I can tell the pieces, with the exception of Dawn, receive first recordings here.
Shanty and Dawn make a good pairing. Adès composed both during the pandemic with the audience at a distance, as suggested by each work’s subtitle. Dawn was premiered at the BBC Proms in London with no audience present and the orchestral players spread around the hall. It is in the form of a chaconne with a descending wind theme that builds until day breaks magnificently with full orchestra and percussion reminiscent of the Fairy Garden in Ravel’s Mother Goose ballet. It has been recorded before by the Finnish Radio Symphony under Nicholas Collon in an all-Adès CD (Ondine). The composer is a fine conductor of his music and achieves superb results here, even if I have a slight preference for Collon’s account which is even more resplendent. Some of it has to do with the Ondine recording’s greater presence and transparency. Shanty refers to a sailor’s song that, as Adès states in a note to the disc,” creates depth through repetition of the melody and variation of the story.” Written for strings alone, the piece has a hypnotic effect with its constant portamento conveying a feeling of seasickness. It has its forceful moments, but ends quietly and meditatively.
Adès wrote his two-and-a-half-minute fanfare Tower for architect Frank Gehry, specifically for the stainless steel-clad building of the Luma Arles arts centre in southern France. Scored for 14 trumpets, it begins sounding like the Carillon from Bizet’s L’Arésienne Suite No. 1 before becoming more animated and demonstrating the virtuosity of the trumpets. In its general sonority I was reminded of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Canon Fever. The musicians seem to be having a ball with the fanfare and display all the necessary panache.
Placed last on the disc is Adès’s substantial and recent Aquifer, which also left the greatest impression on me. It is one of those evocative “storm” pieces in the manner of Sibelius’s Tapiola. Adès composed the work for Simon Rattle’s first season as chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony. Aquifer is scored for a large orchestra with multiple parts for winds, brass, and percussion, in addition to strings. The orchestration can be dense and, in this recording, difficult to catch all the individual parts as clearly as one would like. Still, it is a work, like his Tevot, that I shall want to hear many times again. Aquifer actually consists of seven sections, but only one track on the disc. It is not always apparent where one section ends and the next begins. The music starts by welling up from the watery depths of the orchestra and builds with much brass and percussion before quieting down in a slow section. That section has harmony and sound typical of this composer, reminding me of Tevot. There are prominent horn calls before the piece becomes boisterous with a lot of percussion, as if a storm were brewing. Much is dark and foreboding until once again the high horns break the mood with a bright joyous theme. All gets loud and majestic with a C major chord to conclude, after which there is vociferous applause from the audience. According to one account, the conductor was supposed to hold a large rattle high during the percussive ending—a tribute to Sir Simon! On this audio recording there is no rattle heard, but only the chord. A video is in order, I would think. I hope that Rattle records the piece, as I have preferred his account of Tevot with the Berlin Philharmonic (EMI/Warner) to the composer’s own with the London Symphony on LSO Live. All the same, the Hallé orchestra under Adès do total justice to Aquifer.
William Marsey and Oliver Leith, whose music is also conducted on this disc by Thomas Adès, are upcoming British composers promoted by Adès and others. Marsey’s Man with a Limp Wrist was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2019, but premiered by the Hallé under Adès in 2023. The composition is in eight short sections, each inspired by paintings of Pakistani artist, Salmon Toor. I found some of these “scenes” more interesting than others, but as a whole I was rather underwhelmed by the work. The first section, entitled Ghost Story begins with Bach-based chorale and then wanders off in its own direction. The second one, Bar Boy, has a rhythmically uneven, syncopated tune that reminds me of the Scottish dance music by Peter Maxwell Davies. It succeeds in creating the impression of drunkenness. The last and longest section is Man with a Limp Wrist and depicts a “single, posed figure, standing alone against a grey wall, one arm raised with a dangling hand, his gazed averted,” according to Marsey. There is a photo of the painting in the CD booklet, but none of the others that inspired the composer. I found this the hardest to appreciate, but more exposure may change my opinion.
Where Marsey utilizes the full orchestra, Oliver Leith in his Cartoon Sun features the brass and percussion, especially various bells. The three sections of the piece are entitled, Bell cannon fantasy, Pin flare, and Gold billow blow. Leith’s detailed description of the work in the booklet includes: “Like the sun, the pealing of bells fills the air with a similar golden thickness or heaviness” and “Large bells toll sadness and festivals, small bells buzz horses or dances.” These descriptions are apropos to the music. The brass and percussion sonorities ring in one’s head long after the work has concluded and leave a striking
impression (pun intended)! I have no problem appreciating what Leith has accomplished here. Cartoon Sun was commissioned by the Hallé Concerts Society and premiered by the Hallé in 2024.
This imaginative programme is in its way a tribute to the work Thomas Adès as artist-in-residence with the Hallé. The performances are authoritative and well recorded. Fans of today’s British orchestral scene should find much here to enjoy and stimulate.
Leslie Wright
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