John Luther Adams

Composer of the Week is broadcast on Radio 3 at 12pm, Monday to Friday. Programmes in February are: 31 January – 4 February Elgar 7-11 February CPE Bach 14-18 February Edward Gregson/Alan Bush 21-25 February Respighi 28 February – 4 March Clementi

In 2014, won the Pulitzer Prize for music. A vast and immersive symphonic seascape, it is a modernday answer to Debussy’s . And there’s a clue in the title. This isn’t music that so much describes the ocean, but music that somehow, metaphorically, the ocean. Beneath its glittering surface are powerful undercurrents. Its notes behave like shifting water; its structure is built of surging waves. While meticulously constructed as a musical work, at its heart is also a serious environmental message. In a note on the score to , its composer wrote: ‘Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. As the polar ice melts and sea level rises,