Thomas Adès: Living Toys [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This is the second recording of music by young British composer Thomas Adès, and it contains several quite impressive works, mostly written between 1993 and 1994. His seven-movement, 20-minute string quartet Arcadiana (Op. 12) stands as the most complete achievement on this disk, and it's a work of striking ingenuity and confidence. Adès was 27 when this recording was released, and more than anything it's a document of an imaginative artist finding his own voice. "The Origins of the Harp" is moving for its dramatic turns and a poignant sense of closure. "Gefriolsae Me," sung by men from the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, springs upward from a medieval motet. The title work is the most harmonically jagged and rhythmically free of these works and points to an ever-searching spirit. Among the musicians, the London Sinfonietta, the Endellion Quartet, and Adès himself perform with great precision and care, and the engineering is superb. --Pierre Ruhe

USA Today
The title piece finds the composer using a huge range of compositional techniques.... Different instruments resolutely go their own way to have all sorts of musical adventures.... It's exhilarating stuff.

Thomas Adès: Living Toys [Import]

Thomas Adès: Living Toys, Music, Thomas Adès, Markus Stenz, Andrew Clark, Michael Niesemann, Richard Benjafield, James Boyd, Judith Busbridge, Louise Hopkins, Susan Knight, Lynsey Marsh, Paul Richards, Jonathan Tunnell, Paul Watkins, Robert Quinney, Chamber, Chamber Music, Chamber Symphony, Choral, Choral Music, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic, Quartet for Four String Instruments
Thomas Adès: Living Toys
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Interesting
  • Early Hints of a Developing Genius
  • Genius at work
  • craft alone isn't enough
  • Adventurous, appealing music
 Thomas Adès: Living Toys
Thomas Adès , Markus Stenz , Andrew Clark , Michael Niesemann , Richard Benjafield , James Boyd , Judith Busbridge , Louise Hopkins , Susan Knight , Lynsey Marsh , Paul Richards , Jonathan Tunnell , Paul Watkins , and Robert Quinney
Manufacturer: Angel Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:
  1. Ades: Catch/Darknesse Visible/Still Sorrowing/Under Hamelin Hill/Five Eliot Landscapes/Traced OVerhead/Life Story
  2. Ades: Asyla, These Premises Are Alarmed, etc. / Rattle, et al
  3. Thomas Adès: America: A Prophecy
  4. Adès: Piano Quintet; Schubert: "Trout Quintet"
  5. Adès - Powder Her Face / Gomez, V. Anderson, N. Morris, Bryson, Almeida Ensemble, Adès

ASIN: B000006OGT
Release Date: 2002-11-05

Tracks:

  1. Living Toys, Op. 9: I: Angels
  2. Living Toys, Op. 9: II: Aurochs
  3. Living Toys, Op. 9: Balett
  4. Living Toys, Op. 9: III: Militiamen
  5. Living Toys, Op. 9: IV: H.A.L.'s Death
  6. Living Toys, Op. 9: Battle
  7. Living Toys, Op. 9: V: Playing Funerals
  8. Living Toys, Op. 9: Tablet
  9. Arcadiana op.12: I: Venezia notturna
  10. Arcadiana op.12: II: Das klinget so herrlich, das klinget so schon
  11. Arcadiana op.12: III: Auf dem Wasser zu singen
  12. Arcadiana op.12: IV: Et... (tango mortale)
  13. Arcadiana op.12: V: L'Embarquement
  14. Arcadiana op.12: VI: O Albion
  15. Arcadiana op.12: VII: Lethe
  16. Sonata da Caccia op.11: I: Gravement
  17. Sonata da Caccia op.11: II: Gayement
  18. Sonata da Caccia op.11: III: Naivement
  19. Sonata da Caccia op.11: IV: Galament
  20. The Origin On The Harp, Op. 13: I: Dolcissimo ed espressivo
  21. The Origin On The Harp, Op. 13: II: Largo con moto
  22. The Origin On The Harp, Op. 13: III: Spettrale
  23. The Origin On The Harp, Op. 13: IV: (untitled)
  24. Gefriolsae Me, Op. 3b: Gefriolsae Me op.3b

Amazon.com

This is the second recording of music by young British composer Thomas Adès, and it contains several quite impressive works, mostly written between 1993 and 1994. His seven-movement, 20-minute string quartet Arcadiana (Op. 12) stands as the most complete achievement on this disk, and it's a work of striking ingenuity and confidence. Adès was 27 when this recording was released, and more than anything it's a document of an imaginative artist finding his own voice. "The Origins of the Harp" is moving for its dramatic turns and a poignant sense of closure. "Gefriolsae Me," sung by men from the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, springs upward from a medieval motet. The title work is the most harmonically jagged and rhythmically free of these works and points to an ever-searching spirit. Among the musicians, the London Sinfonietta, the Endellion Quartet, and Adès himself perform with great precision and care, and the engineering is superb. --Pierre Ruhe

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Interesting.......2007-04-09

Very interesting though not great by any means by this young composer. Ades has since composed what to me is some of the best 'new' Classical music. Have become a big fan of his.

4 out of 5 stars Early Hints of a Developing Genius.......2006-02-23

Thomas Adès is currently artist in residence with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and in that role he is serving as conductor of his own compositions as well as works by other composers, as performer (solo piano and chamber music) and as a beam of bright light that is a welcome new voice in contemporary music. As is appropriate for artists in residence, Adès offered early compositions as well as his most recent works.

This recording may not be wholly successful in displaying the potential Adès is now realizing, but it is in listening carefully to works such as 'The Origin of the Harp' on this recording that suggests the enormous capacity for exploration of colors and moods that suffuse his works. Despite the title the work does not use the harp as an instrument, but rather refers of the impact of a painting by Maclise which depicts the Celtic legend of a water nymph who falls in love with a mortal and who in order to join him on land is transformed into a harp. It is this metamorphosis that Adès captures in this work for three celli, three clarinets, three violas and an extensive battery of percussion. The writing is daring, mystical, and the instrumentation allows Adès to successfully suggest the metamorphosis from water to solidity in the most sensual manner.

The 'Arcadiana, for string quartet' is suggestive of quotations from other composers but in a language Adès' own. The other works on this CD while not as interesting still give notice of a mind unafraid of challenge and wholly capable of the gamut of emotion one hopes will continue to find presence in his works. For collectors interested in following the career path of a very important composer, this recording is highly recommended. Grady Harp, February 06

4 out of 5 stars Genius at work.......2002-03-02

Brilliant, challenging, intellectually self indulgent on occasion, experimental, ravishingly beautiful at times as in the string quartet and the choral piece; innovative, fresh, assured and completely astonishing from one so young. It's very hard to determine where Ades is ultimately heading, musically speaking, but these works written on the way to that destination stand on their own as fascinating examples of a truly creative imagination. Although I enjoyed "Living Toys" it was my least favorite piece. [update: after many rehearings, it has become a favorite-this underscores the necessity of gving complex music such as Ades' more than a perfunctory single listen] The aforementioned Quartet and Choral pieces were the standout. "Origin" was interesting for the wonderful sonorities and textures conjured up from a truly odd ensemble and the "Sonata" made me laugh out loud with it's fun-house mirror view of Baroque music. Highly recommended to the open minded.

2 out of 5 stars craft alone isn't enough.......2001-07-31

I truly feel strange writing this review, as it is the most negative one I have yet contributed for any composer. I first heard the name of Thomas Ades about four years ago, when a fellow composer told me that he was, and I quote, "the greatest British composer since Britten." Needless to say, my expectations were rather high when I first purchased this recording to try and acquaint myself with his music. I must say that his grasp of the CRAFT of musical composition is astounding for his age (which isn't too far from my own, to give us some perspective). Craft without original ideas, however, is useless. To me, Ades sounds like any number of a long line of British composers living in the long shadow of Harrison Birtwistle. What we get here is the standard line...complex and obtuse, without any real direction. "The Origin of the Harp" is the only work that prevents me from rating this disc even lower, as it has several enchanting moments , but not enough to save this album. His operatic works ARE better than the music presented here, without a doubt, but I am afraid that the hype surrounding Ades's work this early in his career could invariably stunt his compositional growth later in life. Though what I have heard to this point has been disappointing, I still expect great things from Thomas Ades in the future.

4 out of 5 stars Adventurous, appealing music.......1999-12-09

Adès has been hailed as everything from "the new Mozart" to "the next Britten", and criticised just as enthusiastically for his perceived arrogance (the New York Times referred to his "spoiled-brat behavior"), but his music speaks for itself. In the chamber pieces featured here, he experiments further with his trademark sonorites, as established in his earlier pieces: shining harmonics on string instruments, pattering rhythmic counterpoint in the percussion, mercurial flourishes in the high-register woodwinds, and irritable growls in the low voices. His experiments with form are just as remarkable -- even as he constantly refers to well-known musical tropes of this century and others, he is constantly analysing and reinterpreting what has come before him. This is mature, self-aware music, from a young master. Beyond the orchestrational and formal aspects, though, is the profound emotionality of Adès' music. If this is your first experience with Adès, be warned: his music is not for everybody, and some of the dissonances can be quite appalling to the unprepared listener, as was suggested by earlier reviewers. That said, it's actually pretty accessible and can be appreciated by people with different levels of musical training. All that is needed is curiosity and an open mind. Wholeheartedly recommended.

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