Ades: Asyla, These Premises Are Alarmed, etc. / Rattle, et al

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Born in 1971, British composer Thomas Adès has rapidly gained an international standing as one of the most exciting voices among the newest generation of composers. His debut release, Life Story, revealed an amazing facility for experimenting with sonic colors, while the 1997 opera Powder Her Face--a polystylistic amalgam of savage comedy and tragic pathos--grabbed attention as a work of stunningly effective theatricality. The music gathered on this disc ranges from early works when Adès was still considered a composer of "promise" to more recent ones that announce a full-fledged artist. The Chamber Symphony involves a jaunty, coloristic interplay between basset clarinet and an unconventional ensemble in which the other instruments become, according to Adès, "infected with the personality of the solo instrument." "...but all shall be well" (the title from Eliot's "Four Quartets") traces an up-and-down theme through a sonic garden of delights, while "These Premises Are Alarmed" sets off a firecracker of phosphorescent virtuosity. But the centerpiece here is the title symphony for a Mahler-sized orchestra plus three pianos. "Asyla" covers a vast terrain in its 22 minutes, playing up the doubleness of its name (Latin plural of "asylum") with a chaotic exuberance of fragmented colors (hints of both Stravinsky and Ligeti), from a paranoically obsessive bedlam to the free-spirited refuge attained in the finale movement. Simon Rattle vibrantly delineates both Adès's brilliant orchestral imagination and his command of structural design. The wide-ranging "Asyla" makes a fascinating contrast with "Concerto Conciso," an implosive pocket piano concerto featuring the composer as soloist. Typically, Adès scores for an unusual ensemble of sax, strings, brass, and percussion and plays them off each other with an energetic array of cross-rhythms. Like "Asyla," this is music so rich it needs several hearings to fathom. And it's clearly the work of a composer to whom attention must be paid. --Thomas May

Ades: Asyla, These Premises Are Alarmed, etc. / Rattle, et al, Music, Thomas Adès, Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, 20th/21st Century Orchestral Music, Chamber, Chamber Symphony, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Concerto, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic, Piano Concerto

Ades: Asyla, These Premises Are Alarmed, etc. / Rattle, et al
Average customer rating:

Worth buying

Early Thomas Adès: Promises Kept

Sometimes pleasing, but quite problematic

Good! but not great

Emperor's New Clothes or Pearls Before Swine?

Ades: Asyla, These Premises Are Alarmed, etc. / Rattle, et al
Thomas Adès , Simon Rattle , City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra , and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Manufacturer: Angel Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Concertos | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music
Piano | Keyboard | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General Contemporary | Modern, 20th, & 21st Century | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
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Ades - Powder Her Face / Mary Plazas, Heather Buck, Daniel Norman, Graeme Broadbent, Thomas Ades, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

ASIN: B00000K4EN
Release Date: 2002-11-05

Tracks:

Asyla, Op.17: I.
Asyla, Op.17: II.
Asyla, Op.17: III. - Ecstasio
Asyla, Op.17: IV.
Concerto Conciso, Op.18: I.
Concerto Conciso, Op.18: II.
Concerto Conciso, Op.18: ( dq = 116 )
These Premises Are Alarmed, Op. 16
Chamber Symphony, Op.2: I.
Chamber Symphony, Op.2: II.
Chamber Symphony, Op.2: III.
Chamber Symphony, Op.2: IV.
...But All Shall Be Well, Op.10

Amazon.com essential recording

Born in 1971, British composer Thomas Adès has rapidly gained an international standing as one of the most exciting voices among the newest generation of composers. His debut release, Life Story, revealed an amazing facility for experimenting with sonic colors, while the 1997 opera Powder Her Face--a polystylistic amalgam of savage comedy and tragic pathos--grabbed attention as a work of stunningly effective theatricality. The music gathered on this disc ranges from early works when Adès was still considered a composer of "promise" to more recent ones that announce a full-fledged artist. The Chamber Symphony involves a jaunty, coloristic interplay between basset clarinet and an unconventional ensemble in which the other instruments become, according to Adès, "infected with the personality of the solo instrument." "...but all shall be well" (the title from Eliot's "Four Quartets") traces an up-and-down theme through a sonic garden of delights, while "These Premises Are Alarmed" sets off a firecracker of phosphorescent virtuosity. But the centerpiece here is the title symphony for a Mahler-sized orchestra plus three pianos. "Asyla" covers a vast terrain in its 22 minutes, playing up the doubleness of its name (Latin plural of "asylum") with a chaotic exuberance of fragmented colors (hints of both Stravinsky and Ligeti), from a paranoically obsessive bedlam to the free-spirited refuge attained in the finale movement. Simon Rattle vibrantly delineates both Adès's brilliant orchestral imagination and his command of structural design. The wide-ranging "Asyla" makes a fascinating contrast with "Concerto Conciso," an implosive pocket piano concerto featuring the composer as soloist. Typically, Adès scores for an unusual ensemble of sax, strings, brass, and percussion and plays them off each other with an energetic array of cross-rhythms. Like "Asyla," this is music so rich it needs several hearings to fathom. And it's clearly the work of a composer to whom attention must be paid. --Thomas May

Customer Reviews:

Worth buying.......2007-04-09

Although somewhat uneven, what the heck he's still young, this is worth buying.

Early Thomas Adès: Promises Kept.......2006-12-06

Thomas Adès just complete a two year residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and in those two years he produced enough evidence not only through his compositions but also with his gifts as a pianist and as a conductor that establish him as one of the more important contemporary musical artists of the day. The finale for his residency was a performance of the staggeringly unique 'Asyla for orchestra, Opus 17 which he conducted in the Disney Concert Hall to great acclaim from audience and critics alike. After that experience it is refreshing to return to this fine performance of not only the 'Asyla' but also the smaller works 'Concerto Conciso, for piano & chamber orchestra, Opus 18 (with Adès at the piano), 'These Premises Are Alarmed, for orchestra', Opus 16, '. . . but all shall be well, for orchestra, Opus 10 and the 'Chamber Symphony' Opus 2.

Simon Rattle has long been a proponent of Thomas Adès and his City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group serve both composer and conductor well. Asyla is deeply married to melody and harmony and is easy for the nascent listener to understand. But the joy of Adès comes in his massive, cohesive orchestrations that take melody and then explode it into some of the most creative orchestral colors and instrumental contrasts being written today.

This is a recording to savor. Hopefully there will be other recordings of his newer works out soon, but until then for the listener who has yet to meet the master, this recording is a superb beginning. Grady Harp, December 06

Sometimes pleasing, but quite problematic.......2006-05-29

Few composers of recent times have evoked such mixed reactions as young Briton and Cambridge graduate Thomas Ades, with the gamut running from praise of the new hope of contemporary music to accusations of charlatan imitation of other musical trends ancient and modern. Even the individual listener can't quite decide what to make of him, and I admit that my opinion swings wildly from one extreme to the other and back while I listen to this disc. As this EMI disc contains some of his most noted pieces, it is perhaps the best introduction to the curious Ades phenomenon, it's certainly stronger than the other collections of his works out there. The CBSO performs on the large works, and the Birmingham Contemporary Music group on the small ones. Sir Simon Rattle conducts the first piece, and the composer himself conducts the rest.

"Asyla" (1997) op. 17 is a symphony in all but name, the largest work in terms of length and orchestral force that Ades has written to date, and a piece I have a love-hate relationship with. What one first notices about the piece is its novel instrumentation. Two pianists perform, one going between a concert grand and an upright, and the other playing an upright tuned a quarter-tone flat. There's an array of unusual percussion, including prominent cowbells and a sack full of silverware that's beaten with a stick. The third movement, "Ecstasio" is already infamous in contemporary music circles, for with 4/4 time and clever scoring the composer recreates the sound of mid-1990s house, bass pounding obnoxiously and woodwinds giving off trippy synth-like notes. Simon Rattle clearly loves the piece, he's toured it around the world and paired it with a Mahler symphony for his first concert leading the Berliner Philharmoniker (this performance is available on a DVD from EMI). What I take umbrage with in this piece, however, is it's overt tonalism. Clearly Ades still believes in the idea that tonalism has value since it can "tell a story", although there are as many interpretations of the piece as their are listeners, but for myself, enraptured by Boulez, Xenakis, Norgard, middle-period Lutoslawski, and others, Ades' music seems very limited, even occasionally a series of musical tropes.

The "Concerto Conciso" for piano and chamber orchestra is a two-movement work that puts the soloist in the dual role of pianist and conducter--the piano writing is mainly written for one hand to make this easier. Instead of the high style of the first work on the disc, the concerto takes inspiration from Ligeti-style zaniness, New Orleans jazz, and an obscure dance of medieval England. My complaint here is that, in spite of some potentially interesting theory, the concerto is quite unfocused and bespeaks a certain immaturity on the part of the composer.

"These Premises Are Alarmed" (1996) returns to the vast orchestral dimensions of the first piece but is less than four minutes long. It speedily examines various parts of the orchestra, and ends with an alarm-like ringing. This is for me the least problematic work on the disc, a veritable okay work, which fits alongside the three-star efforts of composers like Peter Lieberson and Peter Eotvos.

The last two works on the disc return to the problems of the piano concerto. The "Chamber Concerto" seeks to draw all instruments close to a basset clarinet persistently in the background, but goes nowhere. "but all shall be well" (1993) op. 10 takes its title from the "Four Quartets" of T.S. Eliot, a composer who has given great inspiration to Ades--his op. 1 was a setting of Eliot's five "Landscape" poems. In this purely instrumental work, Ades meanders through some vaguely pastoral scenes, but the music doesn't really do much.

The pieces here at times engage the listener, at times infuriate, and all in all cannot securely stand on the ground of worthy listening.

Good! but not great.......2005-01-08

Good music, performances, and recordings.

Why not great? because Ades's material isn't allowed to live up to its dramatic potential. He sounds rushed to get out more and more information in each piece. There are uncountable places in all of these works where the depth of the material cries out to be revealed.

Therefore, lacking dramatic pinnacles, the individual pieces loose their identity. The cumulative effect on the listener is that of a sample CD of good contemporary music using basically the same compositional language.

The only exception might be the 3rd movement of Asyla, but even here the development is only -enough-. Given the nature of the material, the extent of climax should be merciless. I'm sure that Thomas, when writing this, thought he was going way over the top. But this is a prime psychological battle of the artist (especially in an abstract language like music). Once he thinks he has gone too far, he's just barely gone far enough.

Ades is certainly one of the great orchestrators of our generation, and there is certainly a creative spark here. He only needs to learn patience and detachment. These things will come with age and introspection and have probably been discouraged by conventional education and early adulation.

Emperor's New Clothes or Pearls Before Swine?.......2002-03-02

Short answer- Pearls. "Asyla" is indeed inspiring evidence of genius as are most of the pieces on this CD. I find it odd that so many seem to be so deeply polarized by his music. Unaware at the time of the controversy surrounding Ades, I listened to Asyla and was immediately impressed-it's clearly amzing stuff.
Ades' music is all over the map in terms of styles he has assimilated, but his language is unified by his unmistakably his own. The music could be characterised as having a restless exploratory quality- as you would expect given his young age, but it's clear that he will be one of the major voices of our time. All the pieces are interesting and varied. His idiom is often complex and will challenge some listeners, but re-hearings are increasingly rewarding.
"Asyla" and "But all shall be well" were the highlights for me but everyone of these pieces is clear evidence of that overworked term, genius. This is one case where applying that word tohis music is no mere hyperbole.

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