Thomas Adès is only 42 but has been a significant composer since his teens. His early works carried enticing titles like Fool's Rhymes or Living Toys. Concerto for Violin (2005) sounds plainer but it has a typical Adès subtitle: Concentric Circles; each movement's title is a further elaboration: "Rings", "Path", "Bounds".
This isn’t musical impressionism, even though the opening fits the image, as the violin’s gestures ripple outwards through the orchestra (the Philharmonia, carefully handled by conductor Nicholas Collon). Dressed like a Nordic noir pixie, Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto had flair in extrovert passages, wonky charm in the louche, mambo-like final movement, and inward grace in reflective moments.
From Adès to Vaughan Williams is a giant leap but the palais de danse rhythms that slink into Vaughan Williams’s Ninth Symphony could be a pre-echo of Adès’s more ecstatic poundings. The symphony dates from the Second World War; the Scherzo’s pounding savagery may or may not portray wartime mayhem, just as the string half-melody that draws the symphony towards its close may be a threnody for the dead. Collon’s account was full-on in every department.
Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, from his opera Peter Grimes, are best heard with the orchestra hidden in the pit. What a pleasure, though, to see the players working away at some of the most passionate music written by a Brit.
