Thomas Ades composer focus

In recent years composer-conductor Thomas Adès has become an unstoppable creative force. In this LSO composer focus series he conducts his own works alongside the music that influenced and informed his development as a composer.

Adès’ Asyla is a four movement symphonic tour-de-force that explores the dual meaning of its title; ‘Asyla’ can be taken to mean both ‘sanctuary’ and ‘madhouse’. Its infamous fourth movement ‘Ecstasio’ evokes the primal, drug influenced atmosphere of a nightclub with its lucid orchestral textures and repetitive structures inspired by techno. 

Asyla is presented alongside two works Adès has cited as being essential to its creation. Echoes of the glistening, crystalline textures of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto can be heard throughout Asyla and much of Adès’ output. The haunting slow movement of Franck’s lyrical Symphony in D minor provides a skeletal model around which the second movement of Asyla is formed.

Tickets: £10 £16 £22 £29 £40

£3 online booking fee, £4 telephone booking fee per transaction.

Tickets on sale online from Wednesday 4 February 2015 and on the phone and in person from Wednesday 18 February 2015