The British composer transmutes old music into compositional gold with help from clarinetist Mark Simpson
Who’s the most successful Generation X composer? I vote for Thomas Adès. The 52-year-old Englishman’s operas, orchestral and chamber works please audiences as well as picky music critics.The second installment of his residency happened Saturday evening in the Baker-Baum Concert Hall, where his “Alchymia” for string quartet and basset clarinet received its U.S. premiere.The title refers to alchemy’s goal of transmuting base metals into gold.
“The Woods So Wild” features constantly scurrying eighth notes in the strings, with the clarinet quietly entwined in vaguely tonal harmonies and dizzy textures. The last movement feels like theme and variations, with that same major-minor feeling of tonality of the first movement, but with the gestures considerably more distorted. Strings swoop up and down, with the basset clarinet queasily bending tones. It ends up in a gentle Mahleresque adagio combining the four-note falling motive of the first movement with the octave up and step down motions of the third, with a breathtaking fade-out on a partially resolved major triad.
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