Nicolas Hodges (piano), Tal Rosner & Sophie Clements (visuals) & Thomas Adès & Rolf Hind (pianos)
CD
$16.75
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CD + DVD
The London Sinfonietta combine two works from Thomas Adès, one of the most distinctive and popular voices in modern composition. Both works feature accompanying films (by Tal Rosner and Sophie Clements) that are included in this CD/DVD set.
'In Seven Days' is a musical interpretation for piano and orchestra of the biblical ‘creation’ by Thomas Adès, composed in collaboration with a film-piece by the artist and filmmaker Tal Rosner. Both music and film evoke the processes of the creation rather than the objects described in the movement titles, using simple elements in repeated and evolving contexts in a perpetual state of flux, change and growth.
The 'Piano Studies' Nos 6 & 7 are arrangements of player-piano works by the American composer Conlon Nancarrow. An influential figure to generations of composers, Nancarrow’s studies for the player-piano (or pianola) allowed him to generate music of extreme rhythmic complexity in a multitude of inventive ways. These arrangements for two pianos by Thomas Adès capture the strange magic of the originals, where fragmented musical ideas are played off against each other in a wild, almost jazz-like way. The works are accompanied by film-visualisations by Tal Rosner and Sophie Clements.
DVD Extra: Thomas Adès and Tal Rosner in conversation
16th December 2011
****
“Like alchemists, Adès and Rosner transform basic elements into a glittering wonder...all is exuberance as blobs dance, circles pulse and spindles multiply into an emerald jungle, in perfect time to the mounting waves of Adès’s score. An exciting creation about creation: that’s In Seven Days...Bold and delightful, this release would make an admirable gift for a discerning Christmas stocking.”
16th December 2011
****
“Thomas Adès' take on the Biblical creation-myth in the seven-part "video-ballet" In Seven Days focuses on processes rather than things, shifting from the rising string motif, clotted piano and woodwind, and epic horns of "Chaos - Light - Dark", through successive hierarchies of order to the calm satisfaction of "Contemplation"...It's as absorbing as always with Adès”
19th January 2012
***
“The ingenuity and dazzling colours of Adès’s wheeling rhythmic and harmonic cycles are jaw-dropping, as is the performers’ virtuosity.”
4th February 2012
****
“the most accessible [music] Adès has written in more than 20 years as a published composer. It continues his preoccupation with symphonic metamorphosis, dancing over various romantic idioms in an ultra-tonal pastiche that, however retro on the surface, is unmistakably Adès in its seamlessness, intricacy and ecstatic momentum.”
May 2012
“Evocative without being merely descriptive, In Seven Days is a highly cohesive work that understatedly fulfils its intention. The piano-writing is expertly integrated into the ensemble, Nicolas Hodges amply exploiting the judicious range of timbral possibilities...Tal Rosner's video designs are a pleasure to watch as they pursue various off-symmetrical guises”
May 2012
****
“It is hard to imagine a closer collaboration...There are moments of calm, but much of this music captures an intense beauty through finely wrought ideas...As well as making for a compelling spectacle on DVD, the performance is also effective as an independent CD in this combined set. Nicolas Hodges is on sterling form, and the London Sinfonietta is wonderfully incisive.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
