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Adès: Violin Concerto (premiere performances) Thomas Adès: Violin Concerto (Concentric Paths) (world premiere performances) 4 & 6 September 2005, Berliner Festspiele & BBC Proms, London: Anthony Marwood/Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Thomas Adès '... this is an abundantly lyrical, sung concerto, and one that, like all the best music, has expressive power that is unmistakable, that one even seems to recognize, but that exists only here… The opening springs (with a nod, perhaps, to the Berg concerto) from the tuning of the violin, and in particular from the fifth between its two bottom strings. This, expanded by an octave, glistening with harmonics and played in a febrile tremolo, initiates a perpetual-motion machine in running semiquavers and at the same time introduces what Mahler might have called a "nature sound", a raw acoustic fact gleaming from the whole first movement's horizon… There follows a big slow movement in the nature of a chaconne… What one might expect in a concerto slow movement - the drama of a solitary voice against a background of tilting sympathies - is certainly present, but unusually conveyed. The voice may belong to the orchestra as much as to the violin, and it passes, consistent in itself, through various characters. It is the voice of hardship being endured, of lamenting downward scales, of angelic rhapsody (or pain) and of consolation, where the violin is magically gathered into the rocking arms of piccolo, orchestral violins and clarinet in succession… The finale gets going instantly with a tune that is likely to keep going round and round in a listener's head. An infectious, snaking dance is proposed, but the solo violin wants to sing again, as it did in the two earlier movements. And though its pure white-note melody is progressively cajoled and undermined - though it even succumbs to the dance, with what Marwood made a snarling reluctance - its path is different. Then, as if a hole in time had appeared, everyone darts for cover.' The Times Literary Supplement (Paul Griffiths), 16 September 2005 ‘At the start, all activity seems to be a state of oscillation, levitation.  There’s Baroque-like busyness in the solo part, spangled with wisps, trills and points of light in woodwind and sparsely used brass… it’s an elusive, somewhat orientalised dance, flecked by percussion, and constantly shifting in measure and metre.  Anthony Marwood gave an exuberantly committed performance of a work which is surely set to be a much sought after new classic of the violin repertoire.’ The Times (Hilary Finch) September 8, 2005 ‘We expect each new piece by Thomas Adès to impress, and his Violin Concerto, subtitled Concentric Paths and given its first British performance at the Proms last night, does not disappoint.  While, on one level, it embraces unselfconsciously the Romantic virtuoso tradition – the violin figurations sometimes recall specific works – on another, it’s indisputably a piece of today, each of its three movements underpinned by a convulsive, compelling sense of energy and by a feeling of different musics grinding against each other… Anthony Marwood, resplendent in white suit, was a formidable soloist, playing with certitude, polish, spontaneity and a gorgeous sound, and Adès himself conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.  He is every bit as gifted in this role as he is as composer.’ The Evening Standard (Stephen Pettitt) September 7, 2005 ‘Adès brought authority to his new Violin Concerto, Concentric Paths, written for the violinist Anthony Marwood, who had given the world premiere just two nights before in Berlin.  As the centrepiece of the COE’s concert, Concentric Paths made a big impression:  Adès has written a concerto which audiences will want to hear and violinists will want to play.’ The Sunday Telegraph (John Allison)September 11, 2005  ‘The 20-minute concerto follows the traditional pattern of fast first movement, slow searching central one and frisky, extrovert finale.  As so often with Adès, though, what at first seems conventional is far from it.  He regards the work as a triptych, with the central panel far larger than those flanking it, and the work’s subtitle – Concentric Paths – gives a clue to the way it is constructed from large and small-scale cyclical patterns that move in and out of phase.  In the slow movement, the processes generate music of high-intensity expressiveness, which push the violin to greater emotional extremes, exploring harmonic depths.  The solo writing is scrupulously notated and hugely demanding technically; Marwood seemed to have mastered its every detail.’ The Guardian (Andrew Clements) September 8, 2005 ‘Concentric Paths, the new violin concerto, is undoubtedly a brilliant work, exquisitely crafted, dramatically taut and fun to hear.  Its three movements are arranged as a triptych, with the focus on a central slow movement built from interlocking cyclical themes.  More than most of his continental peers, Adès seems aware of his role as entertainer… there’s nothing too obscure to scare the crowds.  Rings, the work’s first movement, opens with a flourish of arpeggios that recall both Bach and Philip Glass... The central movement, is gloomily atmospheric, with rhapsodic violin lines underscored by quasi-ecclesiastical orchestral utterances.  The effect recalls the hurdy-gurdy at the end of Schubert’s Winterreise, or the Wurlitzer organ of silent horror movies.  Adès’s competence cannot be questioned.  His orchestration is utterly assured, high points are perfectly paced, and his violin writing is absolutely idiomatic.  With Rounds the concerto moves to its end through a series of syncopated games, children’s playground calls whipped along at the speed of an anxious heartbeat.' Financial Times (Shirley Apthorp) September 6, 2005 'Of the 21 premieres of works by living composers in this year's Proms, Thomas Adès's Violin Concerto, Concentric Paths...was the most eagerly awaited... Though the central movement's abstracted song for violin underlines Adès's outrageous melodic confidence, the first displays his unique, sea-spray coloration for wind and strings, and the third revisits the brassy, fast-car funk of Asyla' The Independent on Sunday (Anna Picard) September 11, 2005 ‘It is a piece with sparse textures and scurrying virtuosity.  Adès describes the opening movement as “sheets of unstable harmony in different orbits”, and there is something filmic about its intriguing and engaging music.  With Adès, even when you cannot figure out where the music is going, there is always a sense that it is real, original, vibrant.  The long central movement is the heart of the work in every way, a long drawn out emotional crescendo that finally reaches a plateau of ecstatic acceptance, without entirely releasing the tension.  There is some extraordinary writing here, solo violin duetting with low brass, and Adès conjures up some ethereally beautiful musical landscapes.’  www.musicalamerica.com (Keith Clarke) September 8, 2005

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