‘Musically the work, a retelling of the Genesis story of creation, marks a startling departure.  The edgy, often ironic vitality of earlier scores has relaxed into a new fluidity and lyricism.’   The Observer

Instrumentation

3(II=afl+picc.III=picc).3.3.3(III=cbsn) – 4.3.2.btrbn.1 – timp – perc(4): vib/glsp/crot/t.bells/handbells/cyms/2 susp.cym/tgl/claves/bongos/cabaça/3 hanging bells or bell plates [ossia t.bells]/3 large gongs/tam-t/4 rototoms/SD/BD – strings (preferred 8.8.6.6.4, minimum 6.6.4.4.4)

Availability

Full score on special sale from the Hire Library

Full score, two piano score and solo part, and parts for hire

For the video installation, please contact the Hire Library for a referral to the video artist

Programme Notes

This piece is in seven continuous sections, following the Biblical story of Creation:

1. Chaos – Light – Darkness
2. Separation of the Waters into Sea and Sky - Reflection dance
3. Land – Grass – Trees
4. Stars - Sun - Moon
Fugue: -5. Creatures of the Sea and Sky
            -6. Creatures of the Land
7. Contemplation

The story is set as a set of variations, reflecting the two-part structure of the story: Days 1, 2 and 3 are complemented by Days 4, 5 and 6.

In Day 7 the Theme is presented in its simplest form.

The visuals also tell the story in an abstract way, using footage and photographs from the two places equally responsible for the work’s commission: Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the immediate surroundings of each.

In Seven Days was commissioned by Southbank Centre and the Los Angeles Philharmonic

© Thomas Adès and Tal Rosner

Reviews

‘the music was just as dazzling as the visuals, and was its own kind of novel imagery… Adès' solo writing are more demanding than Tippett’s…the actual sounds are transparent and instantly telling.  One left the hall lost in a kaleidoscope of colour, touched by an exquisitely decorative experience.’
The Sunday Times (Paul Driver) 4 May 2008 
 
‘Not that the piece works to persuade the audience of anything more than to pay attention to its rich array of sounds and imagery.  Swept up from the tohu-bohu of unruly waves, the audience is duffeted by the composer’s rich reverberations and the videographer’s eyepopping visuals, uncertain whether the aural propels the visual or vice versa, And therein lies the piece’s power, and the audience’s uncanny feeling of participating in the act of creation.’
The Jewish Daily Forward (Tom L. Freudenheim), 7 January 2011

In Seven Days

Gewandhaus (Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany)

Kirill Gerstein/Andris Nelsons/Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

In Seven Days

Gewandhaus (Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany)

Kirill Gerstein/Andris Nelsons/Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

In Seven Days

Palacio Euskalduna (Bilbao, Spain)

Kirill Gerstein/Basque National Orchestra/Pedro Halffter Caro

In Seven Days

David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center (New York City, NY, USA)

Kirill Gerstein/Ruth Reinhardt/New York Philharmonic

In Seven Days

David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center (New York City, NY, USA)

Kirill Gerstein/Ruth Reinhardt/New York Philharmonic/Tal Rosner (video)

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To celebrate the 50th birthday of Thomas Adès, the LSO release an online concert of Sibelius Sixth Symphony and Adès' monumental In Seven Days, with Kirill Gerstein as soloist and the composer conducting.

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Premiere recordings from Kirill Gerstein, and a fresh account of the Violin Concerto from Pekka Kuusisto
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