Composer, conductor, pianist
One of today’s most acclaimed and in-demand composers, Thomas Adès is best-known for works such as the opera Powder Her Face, the Violin Concerto ‘Concentric Paths’ and Asyla for orchestra. On 3 & 6 April, he conducts the Hallé in Manchester, both concerts featuring his own music.
My earliest experience of music was as a manifestation of the physical world: SCHUBERT’s ‘Trout’ Quintet merged with the patterns of light on water reflected on a ceiling., happiness and sadness at once. This feeling of music and life merged into one was my main experience of the world. The mystery of his Octet is still how it can be so tender and intimate, even domestic, and at the same time cosmically vast. I feel that the music is fully aware of this irony.
