Thomas Ades - Dante ballet

[Bryn]

Bit confused, I'm afraid: always thought it meant slightly overly enthusiastic, or similar.

It previously had a far more negative meaning, that the praise was thoroughly insincere and intended to be perceived as such - a backhanded compliment.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

I have not read the review but did you intend the modern or the historical use of "Fulsome"?

Or even the correct use? And before we get into one of those 'language evolves' debates, I agree that it does.

As for 'enormity'....

[Dave2002]

My reaction to everything I have heard of his, except his work as a piano accompanist in Janáček's Diary of one who disappeared, which was very fine.

Maybe I'll look out for it, but I haven't heard too much that I liked. I saw the Exterminating Angel live - which was grimly fascinating. One way to give sheep employment, I suppose.

Ades is a superb pianist though.

[Pulcinella]

The new recording gets 5 stars for Performance and 4 stars for Recording in June 2023's BBC MM, just arrived.

[Mandryka]

My reaction to everything I have heard of his, except his work as a piano accompanist in Janáček's Diary of one who disappeared, which was very fine.

I haven't heard the Janacek, I'll listen to it soon. One thing I thought was rather good was his op 1, Eliot settings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J79X8fQBjU&ab_channel=ARSSONORA

[Master Jacques]

Several weeks after receiving it for my birthday, I've finally got round to listening to the recording of Dante.

I'm delighted - even shorn of its stage trappings, Adès 'Dante' is thoroughly engrossing, for me the finest full-length British ballet score since Britten's 'Prince of the Pagodas', with which it shares some formal features and musical language.

Unlike most classical ballets, where the 'divertissement' comes last, here it comes first, representing Dante's trip through Inferno, a classy mixture of piercing emotion and high camp in Adès's most entertaining manner, which takes up half the running time. With Purgatorio, the mood changes to something much more questingly human, mixing Jewish chant with long string lines, culminating in a ladder-like ascent to Paradiso. Now the music is geometric and glittering in Adès's best "space opera" manner. Rather like Tevot, it glows and grows ever upwards, culminating in a beautiful resolution (surprisingly cinematic, daring the cliché of a wordless female chorus) in C major.

The performance is splendidly virtuosic, the recording very good, and the score - despite the various homages scattered liberally around - always personal, alive and engaging. I look forward to repeated hearings.