This EMI reissue an album of pieces by British composer
Thomas Adès, written while he was still in his 20s and 30s, features primarily vocal and choral music. The largest and most ambitious work, America: A Prophecy (1999), was commissioned by the
New York Philharmonic. A cantata for soprano, chorus, and orchestra, it depicts the Spanish destruction of the Mayan culture, and its title and some of its text make it eerily prescient of the devastation of 9/11/2001. The texts are taken from Mayan prophecy and a song by Spanish composer Mateo Flecha that was written around the time of the Mayan conquest. It's a powerful and disturbing work that's bound to chill anyone with a memory of 9/11. Soprano
Susan Bickley and the composer leading the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and
Chorus deliver a gripping performance. The remaining works are considerably less grim, and some are among the composer's most immediately engaging.
Stephen Layton leads the ensemble
Polyphony in four quirkily appealing choral works. The remarkable soprano
Claron McFadden performs Life Story, a jazzy setting of Tennessee Williams. There are imaginative arrangements, witty and elegant, respectively, of the band
Madness' 1982 ska song Cardiac Arrest, and of Couperin's harpsichord solo Les Baricades mistérieuses.
Brahms is a setting of a poem by pianist
Alfred Brendel sung by baritone
Christopher Maltman. Counter tenor
Robin Blaze and pianist
Huw Watkins performs the cycle The Lover in Winter, one of
Adès' earliest pieces, in which the influence of
Britten is evident, but in which the composer's distinctive voice is already emerging. The eclectic sampling of pieces would make a good introduction to
Adès for listeners interested in exploring his work.