Thomas Adès and Stravinsky

In his colourful music, the English composer–conductor Thomas Adès intertwines sounds from the past and present in a virtuoso manner. Adès gave a particularly strong first performance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra as a conductor in 2011, followed by collaborations in 2016 and 2019. Now he returns for the Dutch premiere of his own Piano Concerto, a crazy ride full of unexpected turns, composed with Kirill Gerstein’s incredible virtuosity in mind. Adès has adapted excerpts from his opera The Exterminating Angel into a symphony in which an important role is reserved for the enticing waltzes of Johann Strauss.  

‘Each episode in the Symphony is linked in my imagination with a specific cinematographic impression of the war.’