Album: Thomas Adès, London Sinfonietta, In Seven Days; Nancarrow Studies (Signum Classics)

 

Andy Gill
Friday 16 December 2011 12:13 GMT
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Thomas Adès' take on the Biblical creation-myth in the seven-part "video-ballet" In Seven Days focuses on processes rather than things, shifting from the rising string motif, clotted piano and woodwind, and epic horns of "Chaos - Light - Dark", through successive hierarchies of order to the calm satisfaction of "Contemplation".

In "Separation", the piano part seems bifurcated, heading in two directions, evocative of mighty forces tearing apart; the contrasting registers recur later in "Contemplation", but the sense of rending is replaced by one of balance and completeness; in between, the various expanding, hyperactive instrumental lines suggest the proliferation of life.

It's as absorbing as always with Adès, and accompanied here by four-handed piano transcriptions of a couple of Conlon Nancarrow's player-piano studies performed by Adès with Rolf Hind, rippling blends of exuberance and rumination.

Download this: In Seven Days; Study No. 6; Study No. 7

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