'It shows how effortlessly Adès crosses boundaries between serious and vernacular music that others have found unbridgeable. It's enough to leave you eager for more.' USA Today

Availability

Score 0571515177 on sale

Programme Notes

This setting was made in April 1993 for the Mary Wiegold song-book. It reflects all the double-edges of the poem: comic and tragic, relaxed and formal, seedy and tender, with a toe-stubbing punchline.

© Thomas Adès

Reviews

'Thomas Adès sets Tennessee Williams’ chronicle of pillow talk during a one-night stand to music that curls and stings like cigarette smoke.'
Newsday (Justin Davidson), 12 January 1999
 
'A deft setting of Tennessee Williams’ reflections on post-coital pillow chat… for the unlikely but effective combination of two bass clarinets, double-bass, and a soprano recommended to take the late Billie Holiday as her model… ‘Vehement and exhausted’ is his expression mark. But the handling is light, cunning and relaxed.'
The Observer (Andrew Porter), January 1994

Life Story

Wigmore Hall (London, United Kingdom)

Claire Booth/Jâms Coleman