Concert Paraphrase on “Powder Her Face” for two pianos (2015)
1. I		5:12
2. II		1:22
3. III		7:44
4. IV		1:53
	
5. Berceuse from “The Exterminating Angel” for piano (2018) 5:31
  	
Mazurkas for piano
6. No. 1, Moderato, molto rubato	1:57
7. No. 2, Prestissimo molto espressivo		2:22
8. No. 3, Grave, espressivo		3:54

“In Seven Days” for piano and orchestra (2008)
9. I. Chaos - Light - Darkness (Live)	7:52
10. II. Separation of the Waters into Sea and Sky - Reflection Dance (Live) 4:14
11. III. Land - Grass - Trees (Live)	5:49
12. IV. Stars - Sun - Moon (Live)	3:02
13. V. Creatures of the Sea and Sky (Live)	3:23
14. VI. Creatures of the Land (Live)	2:31
15. VII. Contemplation (Live)	1:56

Kirill Gerstein (piano)
Thomas Adès (piano)
Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
Thomas Adès (conductor)

Kirill Gerstein’s decade long relationship with British composer and pianist Thomas Adès is reflected through this latest release from myrios classics. Recorded in the luxurious acoustics of the Symphony Hall in Boston, the three Mazurkas for solo piano feature alongside the world premiere recordings of Berceuse from The Exterminating Angel and the concert paraphrase on Powder Her Face for two pianos performed with the composer. Together with these works is In Seven Days for piano and orchestra which anticipated Adès’s recent piano concerto written, like Berceuse, especially for Kirill. The live performance was captured in the Seiji Ozawa Hall as part of the 2018 Tanglewood Music Festival, with Adès conducting the Tanglewood Music Centre Orchestra. ---prestomusic.com

One might offer various explanations for why the music of Thomas Adès became so consistently popular in the late 2010s, but one is certainly that he found a really sympathetic interpreter in pianist Kirill Gerstein. Accordingly, this group of new Adès pieces (the Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face is a world premiere) featuring Gerstein would be a good place to start with the composer. Gerstein gets the peculiar combination of modern unease in Adès' music with the characteristic forms of the 19th century: here berceuse, mazurka, and the most antiquated of all, the concert paraphrase. These are without exception fine examples of Adès' rhythmic tension, and the set of three mazurkas, fully observant of that dance's rhythm but fully of the present day, make up an excellent slice of the composer's aesthetic. In Seven Days -- it is the seven days of Creation that are referred to and quite evocatively depicted -- the piano provides washes of color. The work is not a piano concerto, but an orchestral work with a piano part, and Gerstein scales back his intensity accordingly. Adès himself is the conductor in this lovely live performance from the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts. A thoroughly absorbing release for anyone from total newcomers to Adès to those who have followed him from the start. ---James Manheim, AllMusic Review

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1. Catch, op.4
for clarinet, piano, violin & cello, Op. 4

2. Darknesse visible 
for piano

3. Still Sorrowing, Op. 7
for piano

4. Under Hamelin Hill, Op. 6 
for chamber organ
I. Preambulum (2 hands)
II. Fuga (2-6 hands)
III. Arietta (2 hands)

5. Five Eliot Landscapes, Op. 1
for soprano & piano
I. New Hampshire
II. Virginia
III. Usk                            play
IV. Rannoch, by Glencoe
V. Cape Ann

6. Traced Overhead, Op. 15
for piano
I. Sursum
II. Aetheria                       play
III. Chori

7. Life Story, Op. 8
for soprano, 2 bass clarinets & double bass

Thomas Adès, piano, chamber organ
Valdine Anderson & Mary Carewe, sopranos
Lynsey Marsh, clarinet
Anthony Marwood, violin
Louise Hopkins, cello
David Goode & Stephen Farr, chamber organs

Originally issued in May 1997 and one of the clear successes of EMI's Debut series, this disc was a major contributory factor to Adès' success. It is still difficult to believe that Adès was born as recently as 1971, such is the sureness of the compositional hand at work in these pieces. Since then awards and commissions have followed each other in bullet-like succession (he was the youngest ever recipient of the Grawemeyer Prize for his orchestral work Asyla, Op. 17, for example). He has acted as the Hallé's Composer-in-Residence (which in fact resulted in Asyla, as well as The Origin of the Harp) and he has produced an opera, Powder her Face, of international significance. In addition, he has let his talents as pianist and conductor develop (his solo piano disc on CDC5 57051-2 is an impressive achievement). Being in possession of such enviable pianistic gifts makes Adès the ideal interpreter of his own piano music. He makes the complexities of Traced Overhead (1996) seem easy (other pianists performances reveal this clearly not to be the case). Darknesse Visible, a 'recomposing' of Dowland's In darknesse let me dwell, likewise exhibits an astonishing variety of textures. In short, there is plenty to provoke thought here, and much to make one wonder in which this direction this composer will travel in the future.--—Colin Clarke

This debut CD of Thomas Ades is wonderful introduction to this composer. I'm not sure if I'm looking to deeply but I sence in all the pieces on this disk a dark edge beneth all the multicoloured orcestration. 'Catch' I feel is rather frightening in the way the ensemble on stage lures the clarinet to take a seet with them. As you will hear, the final bars of the piece are not dipicting a very happy clarinetist as the entrapping ensemble make one final swipe at them! 'Darkness Visible' might be my favourit piece. It really has the sence of hearing the song through a pool of water or through ages past. All the pieces have real depth and it is quite amazing.

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Disc 1
1. The Tempest, Act 1: Scene I: Hell Is Empty
2. The Tempest, Act 1, Scene II: Oh Father
3. The Tempest, Act 1, Scene II: Miranda - You Are My Care
4. The Tempest, Act 1, Scene II: What You Have Told Me
5. The Tempest, Act 1: Scene III: Fear. Fear To The Sinner
6. The Tempest, Act 1: Scene IV: Sorcerer Die
7. The Tempest, Act 1, Scene V: Sir? Have You Recovered Them?
8. The Tempest, Act 1, Scene V: Five Fathoms Deep
9. The Tempest, Act 1: Scene VI: As i Sat Weeping
10. The Tempest, Act 2, Scene I: Alive, Awake
11. The Tempest, Act 2, Scene I: I Had The Notion I Flew
12. The Tempest, Act 2, Scene II: A Monster!			play
13. The Tempest, Act 2, Scene II: Friends Don’t Fear…
14. The Tempest, Act 2, Scene II: We’ll Find The Prince
15. The Tempest, Act 2: Scene III: They Won’t Find Him
16. The Tempest, Act 2: Scene IV: What Was Before

Disc 2
1. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene I: (Orchestral)
2. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene I: This Way
3. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene II: Spirit Must I Right
4. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene II: Fool. You’ve Tired Us Out
5. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene II: Murder!
6. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene II: Help Us!
7. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene III: Father
8. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene III: Murder This Man		play
9. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene IV: Quietness
10. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene IV: How Good They Are
11. The Tempest, Act 3, Scene IV: How Things
12. The Tempest, Act 3: Scene V: Who Was Here

Kate Royal, Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside, Toby Spence, Philip Langride
Royal Opera House Orchestra & Chorus
Thomas Adès - conductor	

Ades has composed some truly wonderful music, and while there are certainly beautiful solos for all of the cast members, it is in the ensembles that his true gift shows. The writing proved both passionate and compassionate, though I feared for Miss Seiden in her exposed relentlessly high tessitura a couple of times, but she was magnificent. The final scene had me smiling through tears - which is how I like my operas to end!

Ades score could not possibly more different - in every regard - from his breakthrough opera, "Powder Her Face" (which I love for entirely other reasons). I heard strong influences of Birtwistle (especially in the brass writing - some wonderful special note sliding effects that in and of itself adds an almost Shakespearean sound quality difficult to describe in words (but I know it when I hear it!).

I find just a bit of amusement in that while Ades is composing music of such lyrical beauty not too many decades ago, composers like Gian Carlo Menotti were berated and raked over the coals for producing scores that didn't sound "modern enough." Things do go in cycles, don't they.

During the world premiere of the work an intermission feature (which I wish were present in this recording as an "extra") I had to laugh as various members of the production team mentioned how there were no modern operatic versions of "The Tempest." "Well, Germany produced a number of attempts . . . Mozart was interested in the libretto, but never lived long enough to be able to set it." Etc., etc. I guess being on the other side of the pond, the English can be forgiven for not being aware of Lee Hoiby's glorious treatment of "The Tempest" which is enjoying a new lease on life and has recently been revived, and available in recording as well.

Mr. Ades was lucky in his cast - every role seemingly written for whomever went on to sing it. This is true nowhere more than in Simon Keenlyside's powerful turn as Prospero; it is an absolutely stunning performance. Ian Bostridge, a singer I never fully warmed up to in the past, was heartbreakingly and entirely believable as Caliban. A wonderful effort and successful effort by all accounts and very highly recommended. ---G.P. Padillo

The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, commissioned Thomas Adès to compose a new opera in the late 1990s, following the success of Powder Her Face. The opera became a co-production with the Copenhagen Opera House and Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg. The Tempest received its world premiere at the Royal Opera House in February 2004. Productions in Strasbourg and Copenhagen followed in 2005 and the work was performed at Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2006.

The libretto by Meredith Oakes is based on Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Rather than transfer Shakespeare's words directly, Oakes has reduced much of the text to its essence, and produced a compact libretto with the bulk of the text presented in the form of rhyming couplets. In the words of Alex Ross, "Adès wisely assigned the libretto to Meredith Oakes, a seasoned playwright who had the guts to rewrite Shakespeare … Veterans of contemporary premières will be relieved to find that for once a librettist and a composer have taken charge of a sacred text and made it their own. This libretto is designed to be sung."

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