LSO Composer Focus: Thomas Ades, Barbican Centre

The London Symphony Orchestra are no strangers to contemporary music. During the early days of the Barbican Centre, in fact, they were pilloried for their devotion to it, to the expense of a more populist repertoire. Although the balance has now been redressed, they are still one of the city’s pioneering forces in new music. Nowhere is this more evident than in their annual Composer Focus. For the Barbican 2015/16 season, they will be joined by the winningly creative Thomas Ades, who will conduct two concerts of his own work alongside that of his inspirations. Spanning the romantic and the contemporary, this promises to be as informative as it is overwhelming.
First, on 9 Mar, the LSO will present three of Ades’ most significant orchestral works. Polaris, a tone poem centred around the pole star, is a hypnotic space-filler, with ranging brass phases and a microscopic sense of detail. It will be followed by Brahms’ sole Violin Concerto, played by Anne-Sophie Mutter – one of her instrument’s greatest masters. This sets the stage for the satirical Brahms, which takes that composer’s logic while forsaking his warmth. The result is an engaging anti-homage to the great romantic’s music. Finally, the concert closes with the one movement symphony Tevot, a piece of truly cosmic proportions.
A week later, on 16 Mar, Ades returns with Asyla, perhaps his most famous orchestral piece. Over four movements, it seeks to capture the twin meanings of its title – ‘sanctuary’ and ‘asylum’ – climaxing in a depiction of a drug-fuelled techno club. Then, virtuoso Christian Tetzlaff will lead in Sibelius’ ever-lyrical Violin Concerto, a work of ravishing beauty with some sharp corners. The Composer Focus comes to a close with Franck’s Symphony, a radical fusion of French and German traditions that blurs the typical modes of romantic music into something uniquely compelling. As a counterpoint to Ades’ own transformative Asyla, it is perfect.