Program:
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
Paavo Järvi
Kirill Gerstein
Thomas Adès: «…but all shall be well» – Schweizer Erstaufführung
Sergej Rachmaninow: «Rhapsodie über ein Thema von Paganini» a-Moll op. 43 für Klavier und Orchester
Béla Bartók: «Konzert für Orchester» Sz 116
Recorded live on 6 September 6 2025 at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Strauss: Burleske
Platoon releases Thomas Adès’ Suite from The Tempest – a new chamber work written for violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Kirill Gerstein, drawn from his celebrated 2004 opera The Tempest. This four-movement suite distills the essence of Shakespeare’s island world into a vivid musical narrative.
Here Adès turns his attention to Prospero’s mystical companions – Miranda, Ariel, and Caliban – reimagining their voices through the expressive possibilities of violin and piano, skilfully inhabited by Gerstein and Tetzlaff.
The Tempest Suite offers a magical entry point into the composer’s fantastical sound-world — intimate, imaginative, and full of quiet revelations.
‘Music in Time of War’ receiving the Opus Klassik award is a moving moment — not because of personal recognition, but because it affirms that art, created in history’s darkest hours, still finds resonance in the present.
This album was never intended as a commemoration for its own sake. It is an active musical reflection on how art reacts to and survives the horrors of war, persecution, displacement. It is also, tragically, a reminder of the persistence of these themes today. The First World War and the Armenian Genocide are not merely distant, historical echoes. The aftershocks of those catastrophes powerfully shape our present.
Music allows us to approach such realities intimately — not through slogans or polemics, but through emotional engagement. Art does not replace historical truth or political accountability.
That is not its role. Yet like no other form of expression, art reminds us of the cost of forgetting.
This recording is also a love letter to the physical album — the essays, the artwork, the sequencing, the music — all come together to form a narrative that cannot be clicked away or randomly shuffled.
I am grateful to everyone who contributed their artistry and care to this project: Thomas Adès, Ruzan Mantashyan, Katia Skanavi; Annette Becker, Khatchig Mouradian, Artur Avanesov, Heinz Holliger; Richard Evidon, Eva Zöllner, Jean-Claude Poyet; Peter Mendelsund, Knut Schötteldreier; Stephan Cahen at myrios, Katie Ferguson at Platoon, and Jonathan Gruber at Apple Music; Wiener Konzerthaus and The Columbia University Armenian Center. Their dedication and support shaped this work into something that, I hope, will continue to provoke thought and feeling in those who encounter it.
Thank you to the jury of Opus Klassik for this recognition — of this extraordinary music, and of the ever-resonant histories to which it testifies.
Kirill Gerstein
Commissioned by Kirill Gerstein with support from his Gilmore Artist Award, and co-commissioned by Berklee College of Music, The Visitors was premiered by Burton and Gerstein at the 2012 Gilmore International Piano Festival. Gerstein and Burton only recently rediscovered this recording of that premiere, subsequent to which Manfred Eicher and Gerstein mixed the piece in Munich, in Spring 2025. Released as a digital single only, The Visitors appears on the occasion of what would have been Chick Corea’s 84th birthday, on June 12. Kirill Gerstein: “With Chick no longer with us, and Gary now retired, this is a singular document—both musically and personally meaningful”