'This carnival of horror seemed just right for Adès. His music aspires to a condition of near-hysterical intensity, expressed through mad hyper-complexity or glacial stillness.' The Telegraph
Instrumentation
3(I+II=picc.III=picc+afl).3(III=ca).3(I in Bb+A=Ebcl.II in A=bcl.III in A=bcl with low C).3(II=cbsn.III=contraforte or cbsn with low A) – 4.3(all=fl.hn).2.btrbn.contrabass tuba – timp(=rototoms) – perc(5-8): glsp/xyl/vib/mar/crot/t.bells/2 bell plates/2 gongs/4 anvils/steel sheet/2 tam-t/6-12 susp.cym/cyms/kit hi-hat/4 SD/TD (with snares)/2 military TD/taiko/kit BD/cym on BD/BD/2 swanee whistles/referee’s whistle/2 siren whistles/3 whips/2 clappers/2 plastic mcas/2 ratchets/large guero/tamb/bamboo canes/bones – harp – pno(=cel) – strings
Availability
Full score on sale (HPOD1001)
Full score, vocal score and parts for hire
Programme Notes
Please contact promotion@fabermusic.com for a programme note
Reviews
'The cantata unleashes a whipping battery of percussion and teeming dissonance while also receding into Mahlerian chamber vignettes and bringing swooning dances to the surface.'
Financial Times (Rebecca Schmid), 24 April 2018
'Achieves all the macabre giddiness you might expect, liberally laced with fragments of the Dies Irae planchaint.'
Arts Desk (Alexander Coghlan), 18 July 2013
'It is the orchestra that adds the chill factor. Treating his enormous instrumental apparatus like a witch’s brew, with snake rattles and animal bones specified in the score, Adès awards shrill shrieks to the woodwinds, sadistic thwacks to all manner of percussion and baleful growls to the brass, before letting the entire orchestra sound off in an unscripted section at the work’s heart.'
Financial Times (Andrew Clark), 19 July 2013