Music Matters

In an exclusive and extended interview, Tom Service talks to British composer Thomas Adès. Perhaps one of the most brilliant and successful classical composers of his generation, he's still under 40 years old. His dazzling and communicative operas - on the scandalous life-story of the Duchess of Argyll and Shakespeare's The Tempest - are performed all over the world. His orchestral works and solo pieces are in the repertoire of performers from conductor Simon Rattle to cellist Steven Isserlis, but he has not given a full-length interview for British radio in many years. Today's Music Matters is devoted to a conversation with Adès in his home town, London: a revelation of the mystery and magic of a composer at the height of his powers.