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Composer Thomas Adès wins the Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Music and Opera

2023-04-04T12:55:12.947Z


The jury has highlighted that the pianist and conductor is one of the "most acclaimed artists of this time, with an extraordinary international reach"


The composer Thomas Adès has won the Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Music and Opera awarded by the BBVA Foundation.

The jury has highlighted that he is "one of the most acclaimed musicians of our time, with an extraordinary international reach that he has combined with an intense activity as a pianist and conductor, making him an essential reference".

More information

Thomas Adès: "The exterminating angel", today, looks like a documentary"

Born in London, Adès studied piano with Paul Berkowitz and composition with Robert Saxton.

He completed his training with composers Alexander Goehr and Robin Holloway at King's College Cambridge.

His catalog includes almost 90 works that include music for chamber orchestra and ensemble, orchestra, scene (opera, ballet, orchestra and choir...), and solo voice and instrument, as recalled by a statement from the organization of the awards.

Before reaching the age of majority, the laureate had already composed his Opus No. 1,

Five Eliot Landscapes

, while studying piano for chamber music in Hungary with György Kurtág.

It was in 1995 when he premiered the first of his operas,

Powder Her face

, in which he again displayed a wide palette of stylistic influences that synthesized his music: from Alban Berg or Igor Stravinsky to the tangos of Astor Piazzolla .

Since then, this piece has been performed around 200 times in theaters around the world.

His versatility and the communicative capacity of his pieces have been key in the jury's decision.

“With his extensive catalog of compositions, he connects transversally with diverse audiences, while opening horizons for the future.

These qualities, together with his intense activity as a pianist and conductor, make him an essential reference in the current musical scene”, the press release of the award ceremony states.

Spanish culture and surrealism have been two key elements in his career.

At the age of 12, Adès traveled to Spain for the first time.

He was in Bilbao with his mother —an art historian specializing in surrealism and with great interest in Dalí's painting—, an experience that completely transformed him: “Spain was the first foreign country I visited, I remember it very well because we went out by boat from somewhere on the south coast of England in the late 1970s, and I've never forgotten the feeling of feeling like an Atlantic explorer.

The legacy of his mother is heard in his works, according to the same statement.

Thomas Adès in front of the National Orchestra of Spain during the concert.Rafa Martín

"Surrealism is something very natural to me," explained the winner in statements collected by the BBVA Foundation.

The composer Francisco Coll, a disciple of Adès, explains: “Everyone knows what a mosquito and an elephant are, but Dalí created elephants with mosquito legs, he presented recognizable and familiar elements in an original way.

That is what Thomas does at a more abstract level: he takes a chaconne, a waltz or a tango, but he reinterprets them in a totally original way”.

For the winner, receiving this recognition is a way of discovering that others follow the reality that he imagines and "that is a great honor."

Victor García de Gomar, artistic director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu and member of the jury, has assured that one of the reasons for his connection with the audience is "his ability to combine contemporary compositional techniques with resources to restore emotion and expressiveness from the stage to the hall.

In 1997 she wrote

Asyla

—considered one of the landmarks of contemporary music by the court along with her operas

De ella Powder Her Face

,

The Tempest

, and

The Exterminating Angel.

, based on the film by Luis Buñuel—.

In this work, Adès incorporated structures, patterns and rhythms from techno music.

“Music is the freest artistic discipline.

It is totally plastic and you can mold it at will because, after all, it is made of air”, Adès has expressed.

Source: elparis

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