Thomas Adès conducts Haydn, Adès, Janáček, and Ibert — With Nicolas Altstaedt and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

Celebrated British pianist-composer-conductor Thomas Adès brings his 2024 residency at Paris's Fondation Louis Vuitton to a stirring close with a contemplative and joyful program, joined by cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and the formidable Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Adès kicks things off in the 18th century with Haydn's Symphony No. 64, nicknamed Tempora mutantur by the composer — part of a Latin adage meaning "times are changed; we are also changed with them." This notion of change is taken up in Adès's 2020 work Shanty – Over the Sea, which expresses, in his words, "yearning for liberation, freedom from the false, arbitrary regime of the petty masters, and a dream of a safe harbour beyond." In addition to the adventurous Concertino for Piano and Chamber Ensemble by Janáček, one of Adès's favorite composers, and the notes of burlesque and vaudeville that animate Jacques Ibert's Divertissement, Adès's Lieux retrouvés finds a worthy interpreter in Altstaedt, evoking the varied moods and registers of a journey from the seas and the mountains to the open fields and, finally, the city…

Photo © Marco Borggreve