In Seven Days / Studies Nos 6 & 7 (with bonus DVD)

"Like alchemists, Adès and Rosner transform basic elements into a glittering wonder...all is exuberance as blobs dance, circles pulse and spindles multiply into an emerald jungle, in perfect time to the mounting waves of Adès's score. An exciting creation about creation: that's In Seven Days...Bold and delightful, this release would make an admirable gift for a discerning Christmas stocking." (The Times)

"Thomas Adès' take on the Biblical creation-myth in the seven-part "video-ballet" In Seven Days focuses on processes rather than things, shifting from the rising string motif, clotted piano and woodwind, and epic horns of "Chaos - Light - Dark", through successive hierarchies of order to the calm satisfaction of "Contemplation"...It's as absorbing as always with Adès"
(The Independent)

"The ingenuity and dazzling colours of Adès's wheeling rhythmic and harmonic cycles are jaw-dropping, as is the performers' virtuosity."
(Daily Telegraph)

"Evocative without being merely descriptive, In Seven Days is a highly cohesive work that understatedly fulfils its intention. The piano-writing is expertly integrated into the ensemble, Nicolas Hodges amply exploiting the judicious range of timbral possibilities...Tal Rosner's video designs are a pleasure to watch as they pursue various off-symmetrical guises"
(Gramophone)

CD + DVD

The London Sinfonietta combine two works from Thomas Adès, one of the most distinctive and popular voices in modern composition. Both works feature accompanying films (by Tal Rosner and Sophie Clements) that are included in this CD/DVD set.

'In Seven Days' is a musical interpretation for piano and orchestra of the biblical 'creation' by Thomas Adès, composed in collaboration with a film-piece by the artist and filmmaker Tal Rosner. Both music and film evoke the processes of the creation rather than the objects described in the movement titles, using simple elements in repeated and evolving contexts in a perpetual state of flux, change and growth.

The 'Piano Studies' Nos 6 & 7 are arrangements of player-piano works by the American composer Conlon Nancarrow. An influential figure to generations of composers, Nancarrow's studies for the player-piano (or pianola) allowed him to generate music of extreme rhythmic complexity in a multitude of inventive ways. These arrangements for two pianos by Thomas Adès capture the strange magic of the originals, where fragmented musical ideas are played off against each other in a wild, almost jazz-like way. The works are accompanied by film-visualisations by Tal Rosner and Sophie Clements.

DVD Extra: Thomas Adès and Tal Rosner in conversation