by Gabriel Furtado

(photo credit: Stu Rosen)

Wednesday Night's performance by the Britten Sinfonia at Alice Tully Hall was an auspicious stateside introduction of a chamber orchestra -performing for over twenty years, but never hopping the pond- has developed a reputation not only for its interpretive prowess, but also for its fresh take on concert programming. Instead of opting for traditional leadership from a principal conductor or musical director, the group collaborates with a diverse range of guest artists, focusing on sophisticated, elegant programming.

The concert featured the celebrated London-based composer, Thomas Adès, leading the orchestra. Beginning with Adès performing François Couperin's Les baricades mistérieuses at the piano, the concert's first half was an homage to the great French Baroque composer. Featuring Adès' own reworking of Couperin's pieces, followed by Revel's colorful yet ruminative Le tombeau de Couperin, the orchestra proved its mettle both in sum and through its' parts; of particular notice was oboist Nicholas Daniel's solo in the Revel.

Adés' composition Three Studies from Couperin shed light on the composer as an apt student of music history. He reworked the original pieces, reproducing every note penned, but the piece creates a soundworld both old and new with its masterful change of color, phrasing and rhythm: melodies volley between juxtaposing instruments, taking advantage of Couperin's ornamentation to leverage the contrasts; syncopated countermelodies and bass lines appear and dissolve again; and inherent dissonances are teased out, played with a vibrancy more common to the frenetic music of the 20th century. 

Which, as it happens, is fitting, since the concert's second half began with a few of Stravinsky's lesser-known gems. Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto joined Adès for exceprts from Stravinsky's "Le Rossignol," as well as playing Adès' own imposing Violin Concerto. The Concerto's passion resembles Sibelius' Concerto, but while Sibelius' concerto gradually climbs the icy heights of virtuosity, we begin Adès' in medias res, scaling the peak from the get go.  This similarity might also not be coincidental, since Kuusisto, called back on stage for an encore, delighted the audience with a short humoresque by Sibelius. Given the precision and care the Sinfonia and Adés showed in crafting the program, I doubt the would have left anything to chance.