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Thomas Adès's Totentanz at 2013 BBC Proms

Sep. 05, 2013

Thomas Adès's <em>Totentanz</em> at 2013 BBC Proms

Totentanz, a new orchestral song cycle by Thomas Adès, received its world premiere last month at the 2013 Proms with a performance by mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn, baritone Simon Keenlyside, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by the composer. The work was commissioned by Robin Boyle in memory of Witold Lutosławski and his wife, Danuta.

Totentanz is based on a 15th-century German frieze depicting each category of human society in descending order of status. In the frieze, the image of death is displayed between each human figure, dancing and inviting the humans to join him. In Adès’s setting, the baritone takes the role of Death, while the voice of the people is personified by the mezzo-soprano. In a review for The Telegraph, Ivan Hewett noted the performance as “a cultural event of the first magnitude.”

Andrew Clements, for The Guardian, elaborates:

In Adès's piece the baritone is death's mouthpiece - declamatory, angular and rather Bergian, while the mezzo, more lyrical, more vulnerable, represents the victims who vainly try to resist him. Throughout their exchanges the orchestral machine moves relentlessly on, constantly changing tack and inventing new sound-worlds but always keeping its power in reserve, and consuming everything it encounters. In the closing pages death and humanity seem to reach a truce in a passage of almost Straussian lyricism, Adès's most frankly expressive music to date, but it proves only temporary and the work ends in the lowest depths of the orchestra, having worked its way downwards. The performance was wonderfully compelling…

For more information on Thomas Adès, please visit www.fabermusic.com        

Details on the 2013 BBC Proms can be found at  www.bbc.co.uk        

Thomas Adès
Totentanz (2013)
for mezzo-soprano, baritone and orchestra
3.3.3.3-4.3.2.btbn.cbtba-timp-6/8perc-hp-pno(cel)-str
40’

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