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What does the virtuoso vehicle have to say to our skeptical, networked world?
What heroic principle is left for a composer to lionize?
Ades treats the history of Western music like a bottomless costume trunk that he can mine for any disguise.
The piano jitters, and the clarinet goes rocketing out the window, leaving glissando contrails.
A juddering marimba hands off to chattering brass, which trip over each others syncopations.
Does any living composer organize delirium with as much finesse and flair as Ades?
Hes the Mad Max of composers.
He doesnt make things easy, for either pianist or audience, which is part of his musics pleasure.
