Ades Conducts Ades

In March this year, Thomas Adès, one of the most acclaimed and most frequently performed contemporary composers of our time, conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Kirill Gerstein performing the world premiere of his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. Comissioned by the BSO for Kirill Gerstein the work already is becoming part of the concert repertoire worldwide. This live recording of what turned out to be a ravishing celebration of contemporary music, receiving rapturous response from audience and critics alike, is paired on the album with Adès's 2013 work Totentanz.

Totentanz brings together baritone (Mark Stone) and mezzo-soprano (Christianne Stotijn) soloists with a (very) large orchestra, unfolding a dialogue between a charismatic and gleefully macabre Grim Reaper and the procession of his many victims, from Pope to Maiden and Child.