Thomas Adès begins 2026 on the podium with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony Orchestras, presenting the extended version of America, his Aquifer, and the 2005 Violin Concerto with Augustin Hadelich.
Adès began his stateside concerts with America at the Lincoln Centre on 22 January. The New York Philharmonic were joined by the University of Michigan Chamber Choir and soprano Anna Dennis, who previously presented the work with Adès and the Hallé Orchestra in March 2025. The New York Philharmonic commissioned the original version of America as a ‘Message for the Millenium’ over a quarter of a century ago, premiered by Kurt Masur; Adès presented the piece with Saariaho’s Oltra Mar – another commission from the series. The extended version of America, commissioned by Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Hallé, adds a third movement, giving it a new duration of 22 minutes.
Adès’s original version laid out a scene of annihilation…The score’s sharply rhythmic opening gives way to a grotesque, ironic fanfare…his new ending lends the piece more heft and consolation. Where the earlier score painted a picture of the America to come, this one takes a cosmic view of a place that can seem in upheaval today. Over elliptical phrases in the orchestra, the singers, behaving like a Greek chorus, comment on the world’s “eternal turning” and endless cycles of creation and destruction…
The New York Times (Joshua Barone) 23 January 2026
Adès sets further passages, adapted by himself, from the Mayan Chilam Balam (visionary ‘Jaguar seers') and the ‘ensalada’ La Guerra by Catalan composer Matteo Flexa – a medley of popular tunes from the sixteenth century, contemporaneous to the Mayan miscellanies and the brutal Spanish colonisation of Central and South America. The soloist sings both a prophecy and lament. The modally-inflected ‘Maya’ music that opens the work – Paul Griffiths calls it a “wobbling, warbling iteration…a forest polyphony” – increasingly comes into conflict with eruptions of Spanish music, just as the Mayan text faces off against the Christian liturgical writings given to the chorus.
On 6 February Adès conducts Aquifer at Walt Disney Hall, alongside the US premiere of William Marsey’s Man with Limp Wrist. Aquifer is a 17-minute work whose material surges and subsides in the manner of an underground channel of water coursing through layers of rock. Premiering with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle in 2024 and recorded by Adès and The Hallé, in 2025 he presented it with Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Adès last appeared with the LA Philharmonic – who have given over fifty performances of his work to date – in February 2024, conducting Five Spells from The Tempest and the Piano Concerto with Kirill Gerstein; in January 2024 he joined them for the sold-out US premiere of Oliver’s Leith’s acclaimed chamber opera Last Days. The orchestra return to Adès’ Inferno from Dante as part of Gustavo Dudamel’s valedictory season in March 2026 – their world premiere recording of the ballet on Nonesuch won a Grammy in 2024 for Best Orchestral Performance.
On 26 February Adès reprises Aquifer with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he is also joined by Augustin Hadelich for the Violin Concerto. Hadelich has given nearly thirty performances of the 20-minute work since 2014, recording it with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Hannu Lintu.
February will be the first time Hadelich has presented the piece with the composer, though they both appeared with the Boston Symphony in 2018 to perform György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, for which Adès has composed a cadenza. In 2023 Adès conducted the orchestra in the Inferno Suite and Paradiso from ballet score Dante, as well as orchestral epic Tevot in November that year.