All shall have prizes? Thomas Adès wins 400k
NewsThis year’s BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge award for music, worth 400,000 Euros, has been given to the British composer Thomas Adès.
The citation recognises ‘his original reinterpretation of the Western musical tradition in a genre-spanning catalogue, and his ability to connect deeply with diverse audiences’.
His most recent opera, ‘The Exterminating Angel’ was an adaptationn of the Luis Buñuel film ‘El ángel exterminador’, accentuating the claustrophobic nature of the narrative.
Adès was nominated for the award by Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra and Sam Wigglesworth, Performance Music Director at Faber Music, who is his publisher. The award is endowed by a Spanish bank.
In an interview on receiving the award, the composer seems rather phlegmatic.
Massive groan.
The English squeaky gate music mafia as usual monopolising the English contemporary music scene.
Hope he gets taxed big time.
Objectively speaking , Adès’s music is far removed from the squeaky gate school of music . Rather the opposite.
Of all the objections you might reasonably come up with , this isn’t one of them.
You have posted this moronic comment already some months ago about another composer…Copy and paste doesn´t make it anything less stupid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZCS9g4Iktg….Just for you,so you know what you´re babbling about without listening experience.
Thanks for drawing attention to this piece. A sneaky little reference to Ravel’s Mother Goose at the end.
Truth be told, I find it very well executed but incredibly hollow. I’m feeling impatient for the double barline.
There are some arresting pieces in his output : ‘Under Hamelin Hill ‘ for instance.
Horses for courses as the saying goes.
I know it´s not his most ingenuous piece…I just chose it to show that Ades is often, and even more so over the last decade,firmly rooted in tonality, often drawing on composers of the past, like Brahms(Totentanz),Liszt(Dante Project) or Szymanowski(3 Mazurkas)….At his best,he is fascinating(like the works mentioned here..)
Adès was nominated by his PUBLISHER ???????
Bravo ,and congrats…Tom Ades is one of my favourite composers,not just from our time…Brilliant mind,fine conductor and fantastic pianist too! And ,a nice chap to play under!
Is he sharing some of that dosh with you to write this? How kind.
There is always some inane Karl Jenkins doodling for people with the attention span of an insect
Actually not keen on his music either. Nor Einaudi.