Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Thomas Søndergård.
I - Entrances (𝅘𝅥 = 108) - A tempo, ma poco meno mosso (𝅘𝅥 = 102) - Tempo giusto, largamente - Ancora più largamente quasi a tempo: 0:00
II - March. Feroce, con vigore (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 100): 5:57
III - Berceuse (𝅘𝅥 = 50) - Poco più movendo (𝅘𝅥 = 52) - Largamente (𝅘𝅥 = 42) - (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 84): 9:38
IV - Waltzes. Accelerando poco a poco (sempre rubato) - A tempo, animando poco a poco - Tempo rubato - (𝅗𝅥. =c.44) sempre rubato, under tempo - (sempre tempo rubato) accelerando poco a poco - (𝅗𝅥. =c.69) - Giusto (𝅗𝅥. =c.74) - Tempo giusto (𝅗𝅥. =c.84) - Tempo primo (𝅗𝅥. = 60) - Tempo giusto (𝅗𝅥. = 60) - A tempo, poco più (𝅗𝅥. = c.104) - Avanti - A tempo, ma meno mosso - (𝅘𝅥 = c.70) - A tempo (𝅗𝅥. = 70) - Scorrevole (𝅗𝅥. = 86) - Stringendo al fine (𝅗𝅥. = 92) - (𝅗𝅥. = 100): 14:36
Adès The Exterminating Angel Symphony was composed in 2020, being commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as part of its Centenary Commissions, together with the Cleveland Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Orquesta Nacional de España, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Radio France, and Luzerner Sinfonieorchester. It is based on the 2015-6 opera of the same name, which itself is based on the 1962 film of the same name by Luis Buñuel. It was premiered in Birmingham on August 4 of 2021, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.
Though a rarity in the repertoire, symphonies based on opera music (as opposed to overtures or suites) has become an attractive option to composers due to the financial obstacles of staging a full opera. The plot of the opera is the following: "In a well-to-do mansion house in 1960s Barcelona, a dinner party gets underway. But something is terribly wrong. For reasons unknown, the guests find that they cannot leave the drawing room — some unassailable force is keeping them from escaping. As the hours turn to days, the guests’ minds and demeanour quickly unravel. Blood is shed, boundaries are crossed and lives are lost, as confusion, hunger and madness reign within the four walls of their gilded cage."
The first movement, "Entrances", reproduces the rhythmically lop-sided chaconne that accompanies the guests’ arrival at the party. The guests' introductions to one another float above the chaconne’s repetitions, and an important melodic idea of a rising sixth followed by a descent, setting the greeting ‘enchanted’ is given first in the Symphony to solo horns. The music builds to a climax and fades away, only to repeat in an out-of-kilter version that accompanies a second, surreal entrance procession. Under the influence of the angel, audible in the unstable orchestration and dislocation of material in this altered reprise, the guests have become enchanted (or entranced).
The second movement is a ferocious march, characterized by an insistent, repetitive rhythm hammered out in the percussion. This was inspired by ritual drumming of Calanda (captured in a documentary by Buñuel); above it, the melodic line recalls the "enchanted" figure. If this represents the exterminating angel at one extreme, the third movement, "Berceuse" demonstrates it in its other, most insidious form. The material is drawn from a heart-rending duet between two lovers, Eduardo and Beatriz, who opt for suicide rather than a lingering death with the main group. Yet even as they attempt to enact their own will, their melodies are enveloped by a proliferation of close canonic writing in the orchestra, as the exterminating angel tightens its net around them.
In the opera, waltz-like material emerges regularly as a symbol of the pretensions of the socialites and to voice their seductive desire to remain in the drawing room. For the Symphony’s finale, "Waltzes", Adès reworks and intensifies the symphonic properties of these scattered fragments to unleash their potential within an entirely new movement. The glamour and excitement of the dance is palpable, building to a whirling, overwhelming climax. Yet throughout, the exterminating angel lingers. It can be heard in the repeated leaps of a sixth within melodies (once again, "enchanted"); within the undercurrent of orchestral instability; and in an eerie, unexpected recollection of a lullaby from Act III of the opera, in which a distraught mother, cradling the head of a sheep, sings to her absent child. The consequence of giving into the siren call of the exterminating angel, Adès seems to be warning us, is death.
Picture: Still from the 1962 film "The Exterminating Angel" by Luis Buñuel.
Sources: tinyurl.com/262f6hsp and tinyurl.com/24978jrp
To check the score: tinyurl.com/2bbk45rl
Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Thomas Søndergård.
I - Entrances (𝅘𝅥 = 108) - A tempo, ma poco meno mosso (𝅘𝅥 = 102) - Tempo giusto, largamente - Ancora più largamente quasi a tempo: 0:00
II - March. Feroce, con vigore (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 100): 5:57
III - Berceuse (𝅘𝅥 = 50) - Poco più movendo (𝅘𝅥 = 52) - Largamente (𝅘𝅥 = 42) - (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 84): 9:38
IV - Waltzes. Accelerando poco a poco (sempre rubato) - A tempo, animando poco a poco - Tempo rubato - (𝅗𝅥. =c.44) sempre rubato, under tempo - (sempre tempo rubato) accelerando poco a poco - (𝅗𝅥. =c.69) - Giusto (𝅗𝅥. =c.74) - Tempo giusto (𝅗𝅥. =c.84) - Tempo primo (𝅗𝅥. = 60) - Tempo giusto (𝅗𝅥. = 60) - A tempo, poco più (𝅗𝅥. = c.104) - Avanti - A tempo, ma meno mosso - (𝅘𝅥 = c.70) - A tempo (𝅗𝅥. = 70) - Scorrevole (𝅗𝅥. = 86) - Stringendo al fine (𝅗𝅥. = 92) - (𝅗𝅥. = 100): 14:36
Adès The Exterminating Angel Symphony was composed in 2020, being commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as part of its Centenary Commissions, together with the Cleveland Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Orquesta Nacional de España, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Radio France, and Luzerner Sinfonieorchester. It is based on the 2015-6 opera of the same name, which itself is based on the 1962 film of the same name by Luis Buñuel. It was premiered in Birmingham on August 4 of 2021, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.
Though a rarity in the repertoire, symphonies based on opera music (as opposed to overtures or suites) has become an attractive option to composers due to the financial obstacles of staging a full opera. The plot of the opera is the following: "In a well-to-do mansion house in 1960s Barcelona, a dinner party gets underway. But something is terribly wrong. For reasons unknown, the guests find that they cannot leave the drawing room — some unassailable force is keeping them from escaping. As the hours turn to days, the guests’ minds and demeanour quickly unravel. Blood is shed, boundaries are crossed and lives are lost, as confusion, hunger and madness reign within the four walls of their gilded cage."
The first movement, "Entrances", reproduces the rhythmically lop-sided chaconne that accompanies the guests’ arrival at the party. The guests' introductions to one another float above the chaconne’s repetitions, and an important melodic idea of a rising sixth followed by a descent, setting the greeting ‘enchanted’ is given first in the Symphony to solo horns. The music builds to a climax and fades away, only to repeat in an out-of-kilter version that accompanies a second, surreal entrance procession. Under the influence of the angel, audible in the unstable orchestration and dislocation of material in this altered reprise, the guests have become enchanted (or entranced).
The second movement is a ferocious march, characterized by an insistent, repetitive rhythm hammered out in the percussion. This was inspired by ritual drumming of Calanda (captured in a documentary by Buñuel); above it, the melodic line recalls the "enchanted" figure. If this represents the exterminating angel at one extreme, the third movement, "Berceuse" demonstrates it in its other, most insidious form. The material is drawn from a heart-rending duet between two lovers, Eduardo and Beatriz, who opt for suicide rather than a lingering death with the main group. Yet even as they attempt to enact their own will, their melodies are enveloped by a proliferation of close canonic writing in the orchestra, as the exterminating angel tightens its net around them.
In the opera, waltz-like material emerges regularly as a symbol of the pretensions of the socialites and to voice their seductive desire to remain in the drawing room. For the Symphony’s finale, "Waltzes", Adès reworks and intensifies the symphonic properties of these scattered fragments to unleash their potential within an entirely new movement. The glamour and excitement of the dance is palpable, building to a whirling, overwhelming climax. Yet throughout, the exterminating angel lingers. It can be heard in the repeated leaps of a sixth within melodies (once again, "enchanted"); within the undercurrent of orchestral instability; and in an eerie, unexpected recollection of a lullaby from Act III of the opera, in which a distraught mother, cradling the head of a sheep, sings to her absent child. The consequence of giving into the siren call of the exterminating angel, Adès seems to be warning us, is death.
Picture: Still from the 1962 film "The Exterminating Angel" by Luis Buñuel.
Sources: tinyurl.com/262f6hsp and tinyurl.com/24978jrp
To check the score: tinyurl.com/2bbk45rl
