# Ades conducts Beethoven



## Gray Bean (May 13, 2020)

Has anyone heard the new set of the first three Beethoven Symphonies performed by Thomas Ades and the Britten Sinfonia on the Signum Classics label? If so, please enlighten me. Many thanks.


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## Ravn (Jan 6, 2020)

You can find the whole set on Idagio (and therefore on any streaming service I suppose). The Eroica was pretty good, although not enough timpani for my taste. Haven’t heard 1 and 2. The set included two interesting pieces by Gerald Berry, which I found more interesting than yet another Beethoven recording.


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## runssical (Jan 20, 2017)

Listened to some of this collection on Tidal. The beethoven was light and unaffecting. Shortly after Ades own music started playing I turned it off and deleted the album. There's far better contemporary composers than Ades and he's a lousy conductor imo.


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## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

runssical said:


> Shortly after Ades own music started playing I turned it off and deleted the album. There's far better contemporary composers than Ades...


Yeah? Who?

Thomas Adès is a fabulous composer; one of the most diversely praised, highly commissioned, and award winning composers in the world, but here's his entire career, swept away by one critic on the Talk Classical message board!

The winner of the Grawemayer Award, the Ernst von Siemens Composers' prize, British Composers Award, and three times winner of Royal Philharmonic Society large-scale composition awards, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Opera, Concertgebuow Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic (to name a few).... Forget It! Not even worth the hard drive space!


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

....oh, and a brilliant pianist.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Knorf said:


> Yeah? Who?
> 
> Thomas Adès is a fabulous composer; one of the most diversely praised, highly commissioned, and award winning composers in the world, but here's his entire career, swept away by one critic on the Talk Classical message board!
> 
> The winner of the Grawemayer Award, the Ernst von Siemens Composers' prize, British Composers Award, and three times winner of Royal Philharmonic Society large-scale composition awards, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Opera, Concertgebuow Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic (to name a few).... Forget It! Not even worth the hard drive space!


While not my favorite among his contemporaries, he is certainly extremely good.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I've had a quick listen and it seems OK but I'm waiting till the whole set comes out so I can review it.


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## Gray Bean (May 13, 2020)

I went ahead and ordered it. Oh, by the way, the other music on the discs is not even by Ades! It’s music by Irish composer Gerald Barry. I listened to the Eroica three times last night. I would not call Ades a “lousy” conductor. I did not find the performance lightweight. Small orchestra for sure. HIP tempos (1st mvt. really fast) The horn section is pretty aggressive. Minimal string vibrato. Ades makes sure to differentiate dynamics which I don’t always hear in this piece...even with more famous orchestras and conductors. His soft is very soft and he makes a difference between f and ff. The climax at the end of the first movement is actually in the right place. There are lots of small details that stand out throughout the performance. I rather enjoyed it.
I would add that I only purchase and listen to physical CDs and LPs. No downloads for me.


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## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

Whether I'll like how he conducts Beethoven I cannot say, but I have seen Adès conduct, and he is a superb conductor. His numerous guest conducting appearances literally all over the world are no accident.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

This is now my most eagerly awaited upcoming Beethoven cycle. I really like how Adès digs into the music with all the grit, articulation and momentum. The Barry piano concerto is excellent, and accessible too. The real delight is Barry's "Beethoven", an awesome monologue sung brilliantly, esp. when it goes nuts :lol:; and the orchestral accompaniment, which reminds me a bit of Britten, is fantastic!


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Ades has written some music that I really like and quite a lot that does little for me. I suppose his huge popularity (for a contemporary composer) makes many suspicious of him. So many of today's composers seem more interesting but get less attention. And are there not also signs that his music is becoming more conservative? That's what I have read but I haven't heard his very recent music. Anyway, I don't dismiss him as a composer. 

I listened to his Beethoven on Spotify and found it good. I have been listening to a lot of astonishingly good relatively recent Beethoven over the last couple of months and feel we are in a real golden age for recordings of the symphonies. In this context, I am not sure that the Ades recordings so far are as wonderful as some that I have been hearing but I certainly don't hear anything very much wrong with them - very occasional unintended drops in tension are the worst of it - and I think he responds more strongly to the Eroica than to the first two symphonies. He is clearly an excellent conductor but .... I don't know ... I think I would have liked performances that are just a little more personal and distinctive even more.


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## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

I'll say this for Adès as a composer: he never, ever sells out. That a composer pushes their imagination and craft as vividly and consistently as Adès does, and achieves that level of success that he has without compromises, is usually a major point in favor of their importance and credibility. I don't necessarily like everything Adès composes⁠-for as example, I have my doubts about the Piano Concerto⁠-but I do find everything he was written to be worth at least hearing and contemplating. And the best stuff is absolutely extraordinary, such as _The Exterminating Angel_.

I'll get around to hearing his Beethoven soon.

ETA: suggestions that Adès is getting "more conservative" are very silly. It's definitely not true in any meaningful sense. However, his sound palette in terms of orchestration has grown more luxurious and colorful, not a bad thing at all, imo.


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