Concert #1 - Chamber Music. Thomas Adès, Quatuor Diotima, Mark Simpson,

He frequently leads performances of his orchestral works Asyla (1997), Tevot (2007), Polaris (2010), Violin Concerto Concentric Paths (2005), In Seven Days for piano and orchestra (2008); Totentanz for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and orchestra (2013); and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2019).  His compositions also include numerous celebrated chamber and solo works.

September 2023 saw Thomas Adès conduct the Gewandhausorchester as part of his two-season residency with the ensemble which sees him appear as a conductor, pianist and composer in various concert formats. This autumn Thomas also began a two-season residency with the Hallé orchestra, which sees him conduct two orchestral concerts and curate a chamber programme. For the first appearance on 28 October, Thomas conducted the UK premiere of Tower, as well as the first UK concert performance of his ballet Purgatorio, alongside his Märchentänze for violin and orchestra with Anthony Marwood, which received its UK premiere at last year’s BBC Proms.

Thomas Adès has been the Artistic Partner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2016 and he conducts the orchestra every year in Boston and at Tanglewood. He also regularly coaches Piano and Chamber Music at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove. 

As conductor, Thomas appears regularly with the Los Angeles and London Philharmonic orchestras, the Boston, London, BBC, Finnish Radio and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouworkest, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia, Rome. In opera, in addition to The Exterminating Angel, he has conducted The Rake’s Progress at the Royal Opera House and Zürich Opera, and the premieres of three operas by Gerald Barry, including the Los Angeles world premieres of The Importance of Being Earnest and Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, of which he also gave the European premiere at Covent Garden. Recent highlights include Thomas’s debut concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic and his conducting debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. In Summer 2022 he conducted the world premiere of Air for violin and orchestra at the Lucerne Festival, a Roche commission for Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra. 

His CD recording of The Tempest from the Royal Opera House (EMI) won the Contemporary category of the 2010 Gramophone Awards; his DVD of the production from the Metropolitan Opera was awarded the Diapason d'Or de l'année (2013), Best Opera recording (2014 Grammy Awards) and Music DVD Recording of the Year (2014 ECHO Klassik Awards).

His piano engagements have included solo recitals at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium) in New York and the Wigmore Hall in London, and concerto appearances with the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Recent piano releases include an album of solo piano music by Janáček and a live album of Winterreise with Ian Bostridge. His solo disc of Janáček’s piano music won the 2018 Janáček medal.

2023 saw the German premiere of his first opera, Pleasure, at the Theater Erfurt; his Violin Concerto written for Nicola Benedetti (co-commissioned by London Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, orchestra of WDR Koln and Royal Scottish National Orchestra) was performed in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and Israfel, an orchestral work, with Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin received its Germany premiere. Nachtstück for horn and piano, written for Ben Goldscheider (as an ECHO Rising Stars Artist) continues to be performed in major concert halls across Europe. Upcoming premieres include Piano Concerto for Vikingur Ólafsson (co-commissioned by London Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic and the Philharmonie Essen), Phôs for the Bachchor Salzburg, Darkness Moves II for horn and electronics (continuing the collaboration with Ben Goldscheider) and a new work for viola and orchestra for Timothy Ridout.

Mark continues his collaborations with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Jean-Guihen Queyras in performances of music by Helmut Lachenmann. He is a regular guest at the BBC Proms and has performed both the Lindberg and Nielsen Clarinet Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 his orchestra work Sparks opened the Last Night of the Proms. In 2022 he was an Aldeburgh Festival artist in residence and has also been focussed at festivals in Lammermuir and Trondheim. Between 2015-2020 he was the BBC Philharmonic Composer in Association.

Marks recording of his own Geysir alongside Mozart’s Gran Partita (Orchid Classics) won a Presto Recording of the Year award and was shortlisted for the 2021 Gramophone Awards. He was recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Award in 2010. His oratorio The Immortal, with a libretto by Melanie Challenger, received the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Classic Music in 2019. To date he is the only person ever to have won both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year in 2006.Simpson’s discography includes him both as performer and composer. Prism (as soloist) for NMC, was followed by a second disc for the label featuring his compositions including Night Music performed by Leonard Elscehnbroich. His Geysir and Mozart Gran Partita disc (Orchid Classics 2020), won Presto Recording of the Year and was shortlisted for the 2021 Gramophone Classical Music Awards. In 2022, his Essay for Love for violin and piano featured on a compilation album, The Jukebox Album performed by Elena Urioste and Tom Poster won the Premiere Award of the BBC Music Magazine awards 2022.

A composition student of Julian Anderson’s at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, a BBC New Generation Artist (2021-2014), and a Fellow of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust (2014), Simpson was recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Award in 2010, and the first ever winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year in 2006. His oratorio The Immortal received the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Classical Music in 2019. 

The Quatuor Diotima works in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century, notably Pierre Boulez and Helmut Lachenmann. The quartet regularly commissions new works from the most brilliant composers of our time, including Toshio Hosokawa, Miroslav Srnka, Alberto Posadas, Mauro Lanza, Gérard Pesson, Rebecca Saunders, Misato Mochizuki and Tristan Murail.

Mirroring today’s music, the quartet sheds new light on Romantic and Modern masterpieces, especially Beethoven, Schubert, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern), as well as Janáček, Debussy, Ravel and Bartók.

In the quartet’s rich discography, one finds their interpretations of the Second Viennese School and the recording of all six string quartets by Béla Bartók, a musical collection regularly awarded the most prestigious awards from the global industry press. In 2021, the Quatuor Diotima released three musical portraits of Gérard Pesson, Enno Poppe and Stefano Gervasoni. To mark György Ligeti’s 100th birthday in 2023, the quartet released an album dedicated to the composer, marking the new collaboration between Quatuor Diotima and the Pentatone label, a work which received an enthusiastic positive response. In the words of Gramophone Magazine: “This new Quatuor Diotima disc should become the go-to Ligeti string quartets disc for the foreseeable future.”

The Quatuor Diotima was the first quartet in residence at Radio France from 2019 to 2021. The ensemble has since found a new home in France’s Grand Est region, sharing strong cultural ties with Germany and Switzerland, which resonate with the quartet’s repertoire and partners in Rhine-rooted Europe. This residency allows the quartet to develop its Academy in partnership with the Cité Musicale-Metz, inviting young composers and string quartets from all over the world, a chamber music series in Strasbourg, as well as an educational residency at the École Nationale de Lutherie in Mirecourt.

Very active in teaching and training young artists, the Quatuor Diotima has recently been an Associate Artist at the Aix-en-Provence Festival Academy, an Artist in Residence at the University of Chicago and has been invited to give masterclasses at the University of California in Los Angeles, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, the Casa del Quartetto in Reggio Emilia and York University.

The ensemble regularly performs in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and concert series. This season opened with a tour in Caucasia region. The Quatuor Diotima has been invited to the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin, Kings Place in London, Bozar Brussels, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Circulo Bellas Artes Madrid, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Amici della Musica Firenze and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. In January 2024, the Philharmonie de Paris hosted the world premiere of the new string quartet by American composer Augusta Read-Thomas and a work by Marc Monnet. A major tour took the quartet to South Korea, Japan and China in spring 2024.

The Quatuor Diotima is regularly supported by the DRAC Grand Est and the Région Grand Est, Le Centre National de la Musique, La Maison de la Musique Contemporaine, L’Institut Français, SACEM, SPEDIDAM and ADAMI.

The Quatuor Diotima is a member of the PROFEDIM, Futurs Composés, Plateforme des Musiques de Création Grand Est and FEVIS professional organisations.