Andrew Palmer, Group Editor
Classical Music: Hallé Thomas Adès
Thomas Adès Shanty; Dawn; Tower For Frank Gehry; Aquifer*; Oliver Leith Cartoon Sun*; William Marsey Man with a Limp Wrist
* World premiere recordings
Hallé Thomas Adès, conductor
CD HLL 7567
Halle.co.uk
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Like opening a musical jewellery box, this disc immediately catches attention with its expansive sounds and mesmerising creativity. The Hallé Orchestra, conducted with evident passion, demonstrates why they remain one of Britain's most versatile ensembles, painting with a palette that spans from whispered intimacy to blazing orchestral fireworks.
Thomas Adès opens proceedings with Shanty, an eight-minute work that functions rather like a musical Rorschach test. Each listener will find their own nautical narrative in Adès' response to Whitman's evocative lines about "a chant for the sailors of all nations / fitful, like a surge." The compositional architecture is masterful, with waves of sound that ebb and flow like the very ocean that inspired it.
Dawn follows, a lockdown-era piece that transforms the constraints of social distancing into sonic poetry. Written for an orchestra spread apart, it unfolds as a slowly breathing passacaglia that passes between instruments like the first rays of sunlight creeping around the globe. Despite its measured pace, there's an almost palpable sense of anticipation—minimalism at its most luminous. The percussion towards the close builds expectation with the subtlety of a master storyteller, preparing us for revelations that shimmer just beyond the horizon.
The disc's most intriguing work may be Alex Marsey's Man with a Limp Wrist, inspired by paintings by Salman Toor. Eight domestic vignettes unfold with hypnotic delicacy, each movement a perfectly observed slice of contemporary life. The strings in The Texter sing with particular beauty, whilst the woodwinds add gossamer textures throughout. It has an intimate yet expansive quality.
Adès returns with Tower, a brass fanfare that uses imitation and repetition like an architectural game of musical mirrors.
Oliver Leith's Bell Cannon Fantasy opens with strings that seem to emerge from deep space itself, accompanied by a bell that tolls with almost ritualistic solemnity. The second movement, Pin Flare, showcases the Hallé's technical brilliance in music that suggests vast cosmic distances. After an intense build-up in Gold Billow Blow, the music dissolves into what can only be described as "stunning nothingness"—a silence that resonates long after the final note.
Aquifer closes this remarkable collection, its title drawn from the underground geological formations through which water seeps and flows. Commissioned and premiered by Sir Simon Rattle in Munich, it features orchestral writing that bubbles with colour and movement, building up to flamboyant climaxes before settling into pools of rich expression. Like its geological namesake, the music flows through hidden channels, occasionally bursting into spectacular fountains of sound.
Throughout these 17 minutes, one hears distinct echoes of Holst's visionary orchestration, yet the voice is entirely contemporary. The Hallé's sound palette covers a remarkable gamut of dynamics, techniques, and textures, proving that modern orchestral music can be both intellectually stimulating and viscerally exciting.