Just in time for Thomas Adès's appearances at the New Music Dublin Festival (Friday and Saturday) comes this survey of his works for orchestra: Asyla (1997), Tevot (2005-06) and Polaris (2010). There is also Brahms, a 2001 setting for baritone (Samuel Dale Johnson) of a macabre poem by Alfred Brendel.
The perspectives are so multilayered and the orchestral fantasy so free in a Tim Burton-esque way, that I am reminded of the famous beer ad claiming that “Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach”. The combination of effervescence and deep-water surge is often irresistible.
Adès is also a strikingly fine conductor, and these authoritative recordings come as a two-disc set. The first is multichannel Pure Audio Blu-ray, the second an SACD hybrid suitable for all CD players.
