Customer Reviews

Ades: Catch/Darknesse Visible/Still Sorrowing/Under Hamelin Hill/Five Eliot Landscapes/Traced OVerhead/Life Story

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm sorry, but I can't help thinking that this CD has been somewhat overrated. When this was first released, I can understand that those reviewing it were really excited at the thought of an exceptionally talented composer's music already coming out on CD for the first time (and Ades was still only in his mid-twenties!) Those such reviewers were naturally compelled to bestow mountains of praise out of all proportion to the music's intrinsic merits. This CD was released in 1997, the same year Ades wrote Concerto Conciso and Asyla, but consists of mostly early music of his, apart from Traced Overhead (the best on the set). Inevitably he's written far better stuff since, with the possible exceptions of Catch and Under Hamelin Hill, which, without being exactly profound, show a striking gift for instrumental sonorites within a limited chamber compass and kaleidoscopic mood changes. But I have distinct reservations about most of the other pieces. I alluded above to the quality of Traced Overhead; this is the work most evident of a very promising talent, with Ades showing a keen awareness of the work of the French impressionists from Debussy to Messiaen, but transforming that knowledge into a very personal and pianistically conceived piece of music. (I have seen the score in Foyles recently, and am amazed by the array of complex instructions it contains; e.g time signatures like 5/12, 3/4 pedalling, but obviously Ades knew what he was about!) Darkness Visible is for me too much a study in ambient effects, with Dowland's song obviously compromising his normally much more astringent harmonic idiom; but it is concise and effective as such. Five Eliot Landscapes are indeed remarkable achievements for an eighteen-year-old, but they are at times a bit too reminiscent of late Britten in his songs and lack variety of mood or overall purpose. Life Story, ironically the title track, is easily the weakest of the set. The idea of employing a singer to sing in the style of Billie Holiday may seem novel and ingenious in itself, but against the backdrop of disjointed and overly dissonant piano chords, it ultimately becomes inane and pointless. Maybe this work would make more sense in its instrumental version; but somehow I doubt it. I cannot what the writer of the CD sleeve notes got so worked up about when he heard Still Sorrowing; like Traced Overhead, it reveals a very individual mind when it comes to ingenious pianistic sounds (especially in the use of Blu-Tac on the strings), but unlike the former, it lacks real emotion, and in essence consists of a series of strikingly original but superficial effects. In sum: a compilation showing abundant evidence of a fertile and very original talent, but very uneven on the whole. To appreciate the very essence of Ade's genius and what he has achieved so far, I would recommend buying the later compilations such as Living Toys and Asyla instead.

The first of two CD's to feature Thomas Adès on EMI's Debut label, "Life Story" sparkles with wit and vivid imagination. The first piece on the program, "Catch", is an entertaining, almost frantic chamber piece featuring a mobile clarinet player who taunts, but eventually joins a stationary piano trio. Although the rhythmic texture here is reminiscent of Ligeti, the sonorities are original, with rude clarinet slurps offset against crystalline triads in the cello and violin harmonics. The next two pieces are for solo piano. "Darknesse Visible" presents a recomposition of the John Dowland song "In Darknesse Let Me Dwelle"; stark chimes in the outer registers of the piano enclose pianissimo tremolos, played by Adès himself with a nearly vocal smoothness of expression. "Still Sorrowing" calls for a strip of Blu-Tac to be placed across the central strings of the piano, giving what the liner notes (by Andrew Porter) describe as a "dull, drumming sound above which the treble can sparkle, ripple or ting; below which the bass can murmur or toll." The rest of the pieces include a playful suite for chamber organ, five stirring songs (composed at the age of on 17!) on verse by T.S. Eliot, a brilliant piano sonata, and a "cool, wry, and disturbing" setting of a Tennessee Williams poem. If you are already familiar with the music of Thomas Adès and have somehow missed this out, this CD is worth the asking price for the piano pieces alone. If you are new to this composer, this CD provides a thrilling, absolutely worthwhile overview of his chamber repertoire. I have been making my friends listen to it since the day I bought it. The music is fascinating and immensely enjoyable, the performances precise and expressive. Highly recommended.

This is my favorite Ades so far. Because of the solo piano pieces.

How fitting that EMI should have released this first Thomas Adès CD, in 1997, on their "Debut" collection. Adès was 26 then, and the compositions collated there range from 1990 (Five Eliot Landscapes, his opus 1 - since then, EMI has released on another collection, Thomas Adès: America: A Prophecy, an even earlier piece, from 1989, another song cycle, this one for counter-tenor, "The Lover in Winter") to 1996 (Traced Overhead, opus 15). In July 1995 was the premiere of Adès' ground-breaking chamber opera "Powder her Face" (Adès - Powder Her Face / Gomez, V. Anderson, N. Morris, Bryson, Almeida Ensemble, Adès).

The disc opens with "Catch" op 4 for piano, clarinet, violin and cello. It is a strikingly original composition - and not just for a twenty year-old composer. It displays a great instrumental and tonal imagination, that catches the ear from the first second, with its high-pitched single note played at the piano, whose resonance is immediately caught up by violin, and what I'd be ready to stake my hand was a second violin, if I didn't know that there wasn't a second violin in the instrumentarium: so it must be either cello playing harmonics, or clarinet playing in an unusual upper range. The composition traverses various mood, from serene to jagged and agitated, with always striking instrumental-tonal invention. "Hats off, gentlemen".

Adès is not only a highly precocious and original composer, he is also a great pianist, as this Debut disc amply proved, featuring him as pianist or organist in the six ensuing compositions. Three are for piano solo: "Darknesse visible" (1992, without opus number), a recomposition of Dowland's song "In darknesse let me dwell", playing a lot on tremolo and resonance; "Still Sorrowing" op 7 (1991-2), in which the piano is prepared by the application of Blu-Tac, blunting its middle registers (it almost sounds like the pizzicati of a cello) and heightening the contrast with its extreme registers, low and high. "Traced Overhead" op. 15 (1996) again plays on mysterious resonances arising from depressed sustaining pedal with right-hand filigree and rumbling bass, but also on dynamic contrasts and whimsical outbursts evoking the player-piano of Conlon Nancarrow (and Adès has played and recorded some piano pieces of Nancarrow, Thomas Adès - Piano). All are atmospheric pieces, maybe not as revelatory and original as "Catch", and they don't show much evolution in Adès' compositional methods and sonic unisverse.

"Under Hamelin Hill" op. 6 (1992) for chamber organ (based on the story of the Pied Piper, although you don't really hear it) is more original, if only because of the instrument's special and fascinating timbre, but also because of its greater rhythmic pungency. It also calls for two additional keyboard players (and Adès is one of them) to enter the stage and play the middle Fuga "a tre voci con alcune licenze" (with three voice with no liberty), as if drawn in by the piping.

Then, Adès as composer of songs and accompanist. The Early "Five Eliot Landscapes" (after 5 poems by T.S. Eliot) show Adès at 19 able already of great response to the poems. The composition features a very poetic and mysterious universe in "I. New Hampshire", thanks to a piano writing that already uses the compositional devices in evidence in the (slightly) later piano compositions, more whimsical outbursts in "IV. Rannoch, by Glencoe", while the 5th, "Cape Ann", with its evocation of the wild chirping of birds, is meant as an homage to Messiaen. The songs of Charles Ives also came to mind. The vocal line often has to reach stratospheric heights and Valdine Anderson sings them beautifully.

"Life Story" on a text by Tennessee Williams exists in two versions, op. 8b with piano (which is what we have here), and op. 8a, in a brilliant orchestration for two bass clarinets and double bass (which is on the CD mentioned above with "America : A Prophecy"). It depicts very graphically a couple "after [they've] been to bed together for the first time without the advantage or disadvantage of any prior acquaintance", which won the orchestral version a sticker "parental guidance" - but not this Debut recording apparently. Adès instructs his singer to sing in the style of late Billie Holiday.The piano version is more angular, but I find Mary Carewe here more genuinely Billie Holiday-like than xxx on the other disc. The piece is fun, much a harbinger of Adès "Powder her face" and a self-contained opera scene.

Maybe not your first introduction to the music of Adès, if only because the program is too slanted in favor of the piano and doesn't offer of complete view of Adès' compositional skills, and in that respect even the companion disc, published a year later in the same "Debut" collection, is a better place to start (Thomas Adès: Living Toys). But a fine complement to round off one's view of this brilliant composer. And lauds to EMI for their support: now Adès' complete works up to 2007 (except for a Concert Suite from his recent opera The Tempest, and a small instrumental adaptation from the same, from his new opera The Tempest, "Court Studies from the Tempest" for clarinet, violin, cello & piano) are available on CD (add to the CDs already mentioned Ades: Asyla, These Premises Are Alarmed, etc. / Rattle, et al, Thomas Adès: The Tempest, Adès: Piano Quintet; Schubert: "Trout Quintet" and the recent Tevot, Violin Concerto, Couperin Dances. I can think of no other case in the history of recording. Decca's endorsement of Britten, Columbia's of Stravinsky and DG's of Henze started much later in the composers' respective career, and left a few gaps (some big ones in the case of Henze).

Some people just don't like contemporary music. I mean, just listen, this guy, Mr. Ades is a very talented composer. His music is so fresh and original.Besides he is very young which makes him even more talented.I totaly desagree with those who underestimated Mr. Ades. Just because you don't like his music doesn't makes his music bad. You should listen to Brittney Spears instead.

I decided to check in and see what sort of reviews this CD has received and now I must put in my two cents' worth in echoing the negative comments. I read about Ades in the New Yorker about two years ago and then picked up this CD to check out his music. What a disappointment! To sum it all up very quickly and be done with it: the music is TOTALLY derivative. Anyone who has a fair knowledge of 20th century composition will not be in the least surprised or inspired. What was amusing about the New Yorker article was Ades' rather callow criticism of Brahms as being a bit tired or something along that line. Please, Tom! Don't be silly!

Absolutely soulless "uptown" music, self-absorbed, incredibly white, lacking in humor (except for the liner notes, which are a scream). If you like to hear all that's wrong with classical music coming out of academia today, this one's for you: this stuff makes Milton Babbitt sound funky.