On 30 September, Kings Place unveils a new Clarinet Quintet – Alchymia – by Thomas Adès, performed by dedicatees Mark Simpson and the Diotima Quartet. The commission, led by Kings Place, and supported by the Parabola Foundation in collaboration with 5 European partners – Bozar, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Milano Musica, NDR das neue werk, Muziekgebouw aan’t 1J – is one of several initiated by Kings Place since the first lockdown of March 2020. An acclaimed clarinettist and composer in his own right, this is the first of three performances focusing on Mark Simpson over the course of six months at Kings Place. The concert will also kick off Kings Place’s 2021-22 Master Series which first launched as an annual initiative in October 2018.

Marking Thomas Adès’s first major piece of chamber music since his The Four Quarters of 2010, Mark Simpson was ecstatic when he found out that Adès, whose work he has followed as far as he can remember, had agreed to write a new clarinet quintet for him.