Pianist Thomas Ades in recital March 16, 2010

Renowned composer/pianist Thomas Ades will perform the US premiere of "Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face," co-commissioned by San Francisco Performances, the Vancouver Recital Society and the Barbican, London. Classical works complete the program.

To create the piece, which is based on Ades's first opera, "Powder Her Face," the composer transcribed four scenes for piano. The libretto, by novelist Philip Hensher, portrays a Duchess of a certain age at the end of the 20th century and the end of British aristocratic influence.

Comments Ades, "her grace and glamour are figured in the music by a certain virtuosity which encouraged me to feel that parts of (it) would translate into a piano paraphrase rather in the manner of Liszt or Busoni."

Also on the program are Janacek's "On the Overgrown Path, Book II; "Isoldens Liebestod" by Wagner/Liszt; Prokofiev's "Five Sarcasms, Opus 17"; Schubert's "Allegretto in C minor, D. 915"; and Beethoven's Six Bagatelles, Opus 126.

Renowned as both a composer and a performer, Thomas Ades had his triumphant San Francisco debut with San Francisco Performances in 2006, returning in 2008 with violinist Anthony Marwood for an unusual program featuring music Stravinsky had written or arranged for early 20th century violinist Samuel Dushkin.

Other 2009-10 engagements include a major composer and artist focus with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; a return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic; piano recitals in Vancouver and at Carnegie Hall, Barbican and San Francisco; also Ades's debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing three versions of "The Tempest" - Sibelius's, Tchaikovsky's, and scenes from his own opera by that name.

Born in London in 1971, Thomas Ades studied piano and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and read music at King's College, Cambridge.

Official Website: http://www.performances.org