In the Autumn of 2021, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra together with its new chief conductor, Nicholas Collon, arranged a Thomas Adès festival in Helsinki devoted to the world famous composer’s music in addition to works by other composers chosen and conducted by Thomas Adès (b. 1971). One of the highlights of the festival’s program was the world première of Märchentänze in its version for violin and orchestra performed by violinist Pekka Kuusisto, Adès’ long-time artistic partner. This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra includes four recent and exciting orchestral works written by the composer between 2016 and 2021 in world première recordings.

Celebrated for his innovative programming and award-winning recordings, Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is offering a window into his musical life story with his new album, From Afar. The highly personal double album reflects Ólafsson’s musical DNA, from childhood memories growing up in Iceland to his international career and contemporary inspirations.

Renowned Schubert interpreter Ian Bostridge revisits Winterreise, the greatest of all song cycles, on his first PENTATONE album. Bostridge presents this masterpiece together with pianist, conductor and composer Thomas Adès, who bases his profound accompaniment on a fresh engagement with the original manuscripts. Winterreise is the epitome of Romantic melancholia, written by a composer aware of his fatal illness but at the height of his creative powers. It is the first installment of a trilogy of PENTATONE recordings comprising the major Schubert song cycles. After Winterreise, Die schöne Müllerin and Schwanengesang will follow. Ian Bostridge is one of the most celebrated tenors and lied interpreters of his generation. Thomas Adès is best known as a composer but demonstrates his extraordinary skills as a song accompanist on his first PENTATONE recording.

Thomas Adès’ piano concerto from 2018 simultaneously pushes boundaries and embraces tradition. Gutsily performed by Kirill Gerstein and the Boston Symphony (with terrific recorded sound), its opening combines a rich Romantic texture with the mischievous exuberance of Bartók and Prokofiev, piano glissandos and huge block chords rising heroically above Adès’ intricate scoring. Modern big-band jazz infuses the gentler second movement before the finale propels toward an explosive finish with fizzing orchestrations and a frenzy of piano octaves. Equally dazzling is the 2013 Totentanz for baritone, mezzo-soprano, and orchestra, depicting Death’s dances with every stratum of society, from Pope to infant. Endlessly inventive, dark but often witty too, the collection features echoes of grand Mahlerian sweep and the eccentricity of Orff’s Carmina Burana.

The final instalment in the ‘Beethoven & Barry’ recording series which, over three volumes, has traced all nine of Beethoven’s Symphonies coupled with music by the celebrated Irish composer Gerald Barry.