Thomas Adès
Luxury Suite from Powder Her face; Five Spells from The Tempest; Inferno Suite
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Adès
LPO LPO0131 69:58 mins
Clip: Thomas Adès – Luxury Suite from Powder Her Face: I. Overture
The orchestral suites in this compelling live release from the London Philharmonic Orchestra do far more than précis the stage works from which they originate. Effectively looking back over some 30 years of composer and conductor Thomas Adès, they offer a visceral, exhilarating insight into his brilliant musical imagination.
Volatility is the watchword: from subtle delicacy to hedonistic excess; tender entwining to ironic parody – and scenes downright gruesome and terrifying. The combination of psycho-metaphysical enquiry with sheer virtuoso fun is at once rapturous and rupturing of norms and expectations.
The Luxury Suite from Powder Her Face compresses the 1995 opera’s riotous tale of an elderly socialite into seven, dazzling sections. Inspired by the notorious Duchess of Argyll, opulent, off-kilter waltzes and tangos rub shoulders with an ominous wedding march, ode to a favourite perfume and more.
The orchestra here is an acerbic, swooning glory – and it brings sonic magic to the Five Spells from The Tempest (from the 2003 opera). With vocal parts taken by instruments, from Overture storm to the final, whistling calm of Shakespeare’s island left unpeopled at last, it’s a deeply uncanny journey through love, entrapment and power both elemental and otherworldly.
Descending to hell via shades of Liszt and Berlioz, the Inferno Suite (from the 2019/20 ballet Dante) depicts the torments of the damned with unabashed glee – but no small pity, and eschewing moral certainties. From queasy madcap chases to the icy dread of Satan, the suffering is both self-imposed and supernatural – and depicted with awesome intensity. Steph Power