Thomas Adès

All compositions

Concerto Conciso

piano and unconducted chamber ensemble of 10 players

Year
1997
Duration
00:08:00
Category
  • Piano and Ensemble

Instrumentation

cl.bsax – tpt.trbn.tuba – perc(1): timp/crot/3 rototoms/5 tuned tpl.bl/2 wood drum/log drum/talking drum/wood chimes/hi-hat/tam-t/anvil/pedal BD/2 stones – pno – 3 vln.db

Commission

Commissioned by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG), London Sinfonietta and Ensemble Modern with financial assistance from the Arts Council of England and the following Sound Investors through the BCMG Sound Investment scheme:

Kiaran Asthana | John and Caroline Harding
Lawrence Bacon and Jean Scott | (in recognition of the work of BCMG)
(in celebration of the birth of Lucy) | Jim Hawkins
John Buckby | Dennis Jones
Sally Carewe | Michael Squires
Peter Fell | Gabrielle Stanley and Christopher Walsh
Anne and David Fisk | Anne Thompson
Osvaldo Golijov | Bart Veer
John and Sarah Goodband | Alan Woodfield
Nigel Goulty | Philippa Wright

Programme notes

The work is scored for solo piano and an ensemble of ten players, comprising clarinet, baritone saxophone, trumpet, trombone, tuba, percussion, 3 violins and double bass. It is in two movements. The first was originally entitled Study for a Coda, and casts the pianist in the deliberately restricted role of musical director, with a semi-soloistic continuo part. The soloist is released, and claims centre stage, at the beginning of the second movement. This has two parts: firstly, a slow ciacconetta, which runs through six divisions upon a seven-bar chord sequence announced by the piano; secondly, a fast brawl in a tonality discovered by an unexpected resolution of the last cycle of the ciacconetta. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes the mediaeval English dance which this section might evoke (from the French branle) as a form of round-dance: “the linked dancers. . . face inwards to the centre of an arc, or a full circle, moving sideways to the left and the right”.

Thomas Adès

Reviews

'Dense with original ideas, often rumbustious in improvisational low-jazzy style, and yet tautly shaped and organised… this ‘pendant’ has the depth of a first-water gem…This clever, formidably resourceful piece crowned – or ‘capped’, at least: it has no grandiose airs – what was anyway a terrific programme, reflecting Adès’ fastidious taste.'

Financial Times (David Murray), 30 October 1997

'Though only 26, he has an old-world ability to create an audience buzz of excitement about the new in music… he has already explored keyboard texture and sonority with bristling insight; in the Concerto Conciso, given its London premiere at the weekend, he combines those strengths with the clarity and punch he demonstrated in These Premises are Alarmed… It is a pithy work, and one of formidable rhythmic complexity… The drama of Concerto Conciso is intense, its whirlwind impact galvanising.'

The Daily Telegraph (Geoffrey Norris), 18 November 1997

Availability

Score and parts for hire

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