Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra - Ravel: La valse - Adès: Totentanz (Live)

When one of the world’s greatest orchestras has the chance to work with one of the world’s leading classical composers, creative sparks are sure to fly. Thomas Adès came to the Musikverein to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in his deeply moving Totentanz, a scintillating score for mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists and large orchestra. The piece, with its echoes of Mahler and vivid cinematic contrasts, was directly inspired by a late-medieval Dance of Death frieze in St Mary’s Church in Lübeck, hidden from view for centuries until it was uncovered by a British air raid on the German city during the Second World War. Totentanz explores the hierarchy of 15th-century society, descending from the Pope at the top of the pile to an anonymous baby at the bottom and showing how rich and poor, saint and sinner are all subject to death. “You can hear the sounds of skeletons dancing,” notes Benjamin Morrison, the Vienna Philharmonic’s principal first violin. The orchestra, he adds, was able to learn about the work’s meaning and musical intricacies in rehearsal with “one of the most important composers of our age”. Adès chose two masterworks from the early 1900s as ideal companions for his composition. Vienna native Alban Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra paint spine-tingling pictures in sound, while Ravel’s La Valse, written soon after the First World War, portrays European civilisation dancing its way towards the abyss. “Is it mocking the Viennese waltz?” wonders Benjamin Morrison. “Or is it serious?” Adès’ revelatory interpretation uncovers a multitude of possible answers. To hear the full commentary on this concert by Vienna Philharmonic violinist Benjamin Morrison, head to the final track on the album.