More than with operas or film, the music written for ballets can be divorced from its original surroundings. The great ballet scores of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky are regular visitors to the concert hall, much loved even by those who have never seen the works on stage.
It looks a reasonable bet that Dante will follow in their footsteps. When the full-evening ballet had its premiere as The Dante Project at the Royal Opera House in 2021, the combination of Thomas Adès’s music, choreography by Wayne McGregor and designs by Tacita Dean must have provided almost a profusion of riches.
Here, Adès’s score is heard by itself and nothing is felt to be wanting. Given a stupendous performance in the concert hall by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, the music is a knockout.
The three parts — “Inferno”, “Purgatorio” and “Paradiso” — follow the journey of Dante’s Divine Comedy from hell to heaven. One might regret the many ghosts of past composers glimpsed in passing quotations from Liszt, Berlioz and others, or more generally the influence of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky in “Inferno”, but the colour and panache of Adès’s writing quickly blow doubts out of the window. “Purgatorio”, with its cantor intoning a pre-dawn prayer, enters more mysterious territory. “Paradiso” ascends through celestial spirals to a stratosphere of choral purity.
Released from the confines of a theatre pit, Adès’s score becomes an orchestral spectacular, captured on the wing in live performances and splendidly recorded.
★★★★★
‘Thomas Adès: Dante’ is released by Nonesuch
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