Composer: Adès, Thomas (b. 1971)

Glistening performances by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and combined forces under Thomas Adès bring to life Stravinsky’s Perséphone, with fiery premières of works by Adès himself and Gerald Barry.

Top accolades go to soprano Mary Plazas, whose Duchess was at once despicable for her sense of entitlement and her racist and anti-Semitic views, and heartbreakingly vulnerable with her realisation at the end that "the only people who were ever good to me were paid for it".

Three works performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin included few novel musical ideas relative to their lengths.

Adès opera resists explanation, and the ambiguity of the story drives much of its compelling nature. 

This was the second of Bernard Haitink’s Barbican appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra mostly drawing on the Austro-German orchestral tradition in electric and efficient perfromances.