Aquifer, a new work from Thomas Adès, opened this first of two programmes from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. It was commissioned by the BRSO to mark the inaugural season of their new Chief Conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, who conducted this UK premiere. An aquifer, the hydrogeologists among Bachtrack’s followers will know, is an underground seam of permeable rock that can hold and transfer water, and a handy metaphor for the musical procedures of a work in one movement in seven sections, where one layer flows into the next. There was a very large orchestra, the timpanist joined by five percussionists.
Subterranean gurglings launched a rich vein of materials which soon began to surge forward then ebb back, with recognisable but never exact repeats. The turbulence became considerable in later sections, with low-pitched chromaticism bringing much slithering, and harmonic disorientation as strings and brass slowly slid between pitches. It was rather scary this far down below secure harmonic ground. The coda was to have featured, according to the programme note, the conductor punning on his own name by playing a large rattle. The rattle was there, but played by an orchestral member. Sir Simon had both hands full with such a dense, swiftly evolving score. Or perhaps he has suffered too many puns on his name, or shared Dr Johnson’s view that a “man who would make a pun would pick a pocket”.
The conductor returned with the composer, to a very big cheer. Rattle then made a touching speech in praise of the man whose music he had championed since Adès was a teenager, and presented him with the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society, noting that previous recipients included Brahms, Elgar, and – looking up over his shoulder – Sir Henry Wood. Adès offered a muted “Thank you”. Rattle quipped that “some composers have made longer speeches” and gave him the mic again. The “thank you” was clearer than before, but that was all. No specific thanks to Rattle, the RPS, the admiring audience or the magnificent BRSO – though perhaps all were embraced by those two syllables.