Living Toys (1998)

Met o.a. Adès' strijkkwartet Arcadania, dat op 17 juni 2011 ten gehore wordt gebracht tijdens het Holland Festival. Aan Adès zijn op HF 2011 meerdere concerten gewijd. "The five pieces here are as different as can be, all suggesting a composer as delightedly surprised by his prodigal inventiveness as we are. Arcadiana, is a seven-movement string quartet whose central movement contains an extraordinary range of precisely imagined, highly original textures, while the beautiful adagio has a Beethovenian mood. Far more overtly, the engaging Sonata du caccia uses elements that are directly derived from Couperin, but the sensibility is entirely modern. Living Toys has a quite Birtwistle-like sense of ritual to it, with a tangible jazz element. The Origin of the Harp is a dark, dramatic chamber tone-poem. Gefriolsae me, for male voices and organ, is a brief but impressive motet to Middle English words. All five pieces are finely performed, all are further evidence of a rich, exceptional talent." (Gramophone, 1998)