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Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Perform the UK Premiere of Thomas Adès’s Aquifer at the BBC Proms

Sep. 26, 2024

On September 5, Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra gave the UK premiere of Thomas Adès’ Aquifer. Writing in the New York Times, Joshua Barone called the 17-minute piece, “compact and intense” following its world premiere in Munich on March 14. The work's title describes a geological structure which can transmit water.

Aquifer is cast in one movement built from seven sections. It begins by welling up from the deepest notes, before the theme is presented first by the flutes, building to three statements that use more and more of the orchestra. After a breakdown, the theme returns in a slower second section, albeit with more unstable rhythms and harmony; the third section is built on a crawling chromatic bass line. It accelerates into the fast-flowing fourth section, from which emerges a mysterious stillness. The fifth section builds towards a return of the opening material, lapsing then – as before – into a darker slow section with a dragging character. The fast-flowing music breaks through again, culminating in an ecstatic coda.

Following the premiere in Munich last March, the orchestra and conductor gave the Austrian debut of the 17-minute work with the BRSO at the Musikverein on March 16; the US premiere, at Carnegie Hall, followed on May 3. On August 30, Rattle and the orchestra presented the work at the Grafenegg Festival.

Aquifer received its Irish premiere at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, on September 7 from Rattle and the BRSO, followed by its Finnish premiere from Nicholas Collon and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra on October 11. Adès will conduct the work as part of his ongoing two-season residency with the Hallé Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall on November 21 and at Nottingham’s Albert Hall on November 27.

Simon Rattle has championed Adès’ music for over a quarter of a century. In 1997 he commissioned Asyla – which would subsequently win the Grawemeyer Award – for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and has conducted the work internationally over 35 times, including at his 2002 inaugural concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, with whom he later premiered Tevot in 2007. In 2020, Rattle conducted the world premiere of Adès’s Dawn with the London Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms.

Additionally, on September 26-28, Thomas Søndergård and the Minnesota Orchestra performed a unique program highlighting works by Maurice Ravel and Thomas Adès, including Adès's violin concerto, Concentric Paths, featuring Leila Josefowicz, and The Exterminating Angel Symphony.


Thomas Adès's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, op. 24 "Concentric Paths" is performed by violinist
Pekka Kuuisto together with the WDR Sinfonieorchester under the baton of Jukka-Pekka Saraste

To learn more about Thomas Adès, visit fabermusic.com.

Thomas Adès
Aquifer (2024)
for orchestra
3(3.pic).3(3.ca).2.bcl.3(3.contraforte (or cbsn))-4.3(1.ptpt).2tbrn.btbrn.1-timp-perc(6 - crot/glsp/vib/tbellls/2 bell plates/tam-t/siz.cym/clash cyms/susp.cym/hi-hat/4 metal bars (scaffolding bars)/SD/BD/2 rattles (big and small)/whip)-str(double basses require extensions down to low C, or 5 string bass. Half of the section requires a low B)
17'

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