Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Adès

François Couperin: Les baricades mistérieuses (Pièces de clavecin, Ordre No.6)
François Couperin: Les baricades mistérieuses arr. Thomas Adès
Thomas Adès: 3 Studies from Couperin
Maurice Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin
Igor Stravinsky: Le chant du rossignol arr. Stravinsky & Dushkin for violin & piano (from Le Rossignol, Scene 2)
Igor Stravinsky: Marche chinoise arr. Stravinsky & Dushkin for violin & piano (from Le Rossignol, Scene 2)
Igor Stravinsky: Suite No.1
Igor Stravinsky: Suite No.2
Thomas Adès: Concerto for violin & chamber orchestra (Concentric Paths)
Interval

Had Ades not had an epiphany in his teens that led to composing he may have chosen a career as a pianist and it is at the piano where we find him for the opening of this concert - a solo performance of Couperin's kaleidoscopic and seductive Les barricades mysterieuses.

A French strand threads its way through the programme as Ades conducts works by Couperin, his own Three Studies on Couperin and Ravel's tribute to the memory of 18th century French music.

This compelling concert climaxes with Ades' own Violin Concerto performed by mercurial Pekka Kuusisto. Subtitled Concentric Paths, each of the concerto's three movements has its own circular design containing spiralling high jinks, shifting harmonic sands and other-worldly soundscapes.

Queen Elizabeth Hall at 6.15pm - Pre-concert talk with Pekka Kuusisto. Free.

Britten Sinfonia
Thomas Adès conductor, piano
Pekka Kuusisto violin