The Rite Of Spring by Adès, Saariaho, Stravinsky, Alkaen (2025/2025), Musiikinjohto Thomas Adès, The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, United Kingdom

The Hallé’s Artist-in-Residence, Thomas Adès conducts this cosmic programme spanning time and space. Two pieces this evening were commissioned at the turn of the millennium. The first is Adès’ America: A Prophecy – an apocalyptic piece incorporating Mayan verse and Spanish flamboyance. Tonight we hear the UK premiere of the expansion of this powerful work which features celebrated American mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and the Hallé Choir. The second is the late Saariaho’s Oltra Mar – a work in seven movements, exploring themes of love, death and time. These are bookended by Adès’ luminous, daringly hopeful Dawn: a chacony for orchestra at any distance and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Though riotous at its 1913 premiere, The Rite of Spring is now cemented as one of the most influential pieces of the 20th century – a surging, thunderous tribute to renewal.