Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

[Karl Henning]

Slipping in the Schubert Symphony #2 was interesting: why that specific symphony?  What about it caught the conductor's eye?

But he had conducted it before, along with other early Schubert symphonies!

e.g.

I'm in!

[brewski]

Slipping in the Schubert Symphony #2 was interesting: why that specific symphony?  What about it caught the conductor's eye?

But he had conducted it before, along with other early Schubert symphonies!

e.g.

A brief glance through the Boulez programs shows he programmed a bunch of Schubert symphonies: Nos. 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9, along with the Rosamunde Overture — most multiple times — and some other smaller works (e.g., song transcriptions).

Honestly, I did not see "Boulez loves Schubert" on my bingo card.

[Karl Henning]

Slipping in the Schubert Symphony #2 was interesting: why that specific symphony?  What about it caught the conductor's eye?

But he had conducted it before, along with other early Schubert symphonies!

e.g.

Thanks for this! I might have neglected this symphony forever otherwise.

[Cato]

I just gained access to a massive database from the Cleveland Orchestra with all of the concerts conducted by Boulez from 1964 to 20210.

743 works are listed (but many are listed more than once)!       

Searching for composers and how often their works appeared, I came up with these results:

(Keep in mind again that most works were performed c. three times in one week, so a score of e.g. 11 could mean that only 3 different works were conducted.)

Bach: 11

Bartók: 50

Beethoven: 15  (Symphony #2 especially)

Berg: 26

Berlioz: 52

Boulez: 15

Brahms: 1 (Piano Concerto #1)

Debussy: 104

Haydn: 8

Ives: 11 (but only one work: Three Places in New England

Mahler: 38  (mainly Symphony #5, but also Adagio from Symphony 10, Orchestral Songs)

Messiaen: 32

Mozart: 18

Prokofiev: 7  (mainly The Scythian Suite)

Ravel: 88

Schoenberg: 33

Schubert: 38 (!) and only of Symphonies 3, 4, 5, and 6, with a heavy emphasis on Symphony #5.

Schumann: 6

Stravinsky: 103

Wagner: 11 (Mainly Parsifal excerpts)

Webern: 28


Completely absent: Bruckner, R. Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Respighi, Copland, Elgar, Britten.

Three premieres: his own Figures, Doubles, Prisms, NOESIS by Hans-Peter Kyburz, and Concertante by Marc-Andre Dalbavie.

If you would like me to send you the file with the entire database, send me a P.M. with your e-mail address.

[Cato]

I just gained access to a massive database from the Cleveland Orchestra with all of the concerts conducted by Boulez from 1964 to 20210.

743 works are listed (but many are listed more than once)!       

Searching for composers and how often their works appeared, I came up with these results:

(Keep in mind again that most works were performed c. three times in one week, so a score of e.g. 11 could mean that only 3 different works were conducted.)

Bach: 11

Bartók: 50

Beethoven: 15  (Symphony #2 especially)

Berg: 26

Berlioz: 52

Boulez: 15

Brahms: 1 (Piano Concerto #1)

Debussy: 104

Haydn: 8

Ives: 11 (but only one work: Three Places in New England

Mahler: 38  (mainly Symphony #5, but also Adagio from Symphony 10, Orchestral Songs)

Messiaen: 32

Mozart: 18

Prokofiev: 7  (mainly The Scythian Suite)

Ravel: 88

Schoenberg: 33

Schubert: 38 (!) and only of Symphonies 3, 4, 5, and 6, with a heavy emphasis on Symphony #5.

Schumann: 6

Stravinsky: 103

Wagner: 11 (Mainly Parsifal excerpts)

Webern: 28


Completely absent: Bruckner, R. Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Respighi, Copland, Elgar, Britten.

Three premieres: his own Figures, Doubles, Prisms, NOESIS by Hans-Peter Kyburz, and Concertante by Marc-Andre Dalbavie.

If you would like me to send you the file with the entire database, send me a P.M. with your e-mail address.

I could not find the Kyburz work on YouTube, but here is the Dalbavie:

...and here is the Boulez work:

[brewski]

Found another interesting tidbit, with help from The New York Times and a blog called Concert Annals: four concerts that Boulez led with The Philadelphia Orchestra.

9, 10, 15 February 1973 (in Philadelphia)
12 February (New York)

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Pierre Boulez, conductor
Heather Harper, soprano

Debussy: Jeux
Ravel: Shéhérazade
Webern: Six Pieces for Orchestra (original version)
Berg: Altenberglieder
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin (complete)

[ritter]

Cross-posted from the "New Releases" thread:

New recordings of Pierre Boulez's Éclat, Éclat-Multiples, and Sur incises.



Michael Wendeberg, who —together with Nicholas Hodges— had recorded Boulez's complete music for solo piano and piano duet (also on the Bastille Musique label), now appears as conductor.

Announced for March 21.
https://bastillemusique.bandcamp.com/album/pierre-boulez-clat-multiples

Also, Boulez's correspondence with Henri Pousseur has just been released by Contrechamps. It covers more than 50 years, starting in 1951, with a long hiatus after both composers' paths diverged some years later, and relations resuming in the 80s.

[brewski]

For the big centenary, here is a concert on Arte, recorded in Paris in January, with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Boulez: Mémoriale (...explosante-fixe... Originel)
Messagesquisse
Sonatine
Répons

Debussy: En blanc et noir, pour deux pianos
Charlotte Bray: Nothing Ever Truly Ends

[ritter]

For the big centenary, here is a concert on Arte, recorded in Paris in January, with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Boulez: Mémoriale (...explosante-fixe... Originel)
Messagesquisse
Sonatine
Répons

Debussy: En blanc et noir, pour deux pianos
Charlotte Bray: Nothing Ever Truly Ends

And perhaps a very happy ritter can be spotted among the audience. 

[brewski]

And perhaps a very happy ritter can be spotted among the audience. 

Hoping to see a guy standing up, frantically waving a handmade sign that says, "HI GMG!" 

[ritter]

Arte is also offering a well-produced documentary, Pierre Boulez- Towards the Unkown.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Composer Samuel Andreyev has offered some thoughts on Boulez:

I find myself agreeing with much of what Andreyev says. My own feeling about Boulez is I've long admired his conducting, but think very little of his own compositions with the exception of a few works here and there. Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna, in particular, is a work I've loved for many years.

[Mandryka]

Pierre Boulez Born 26 March 1925, Montbrison, France

[San Antone]

Arte is also offering a well-produced documentary, Pierre Boulez- Towards the Unkown.

Unfortunately I can't watch this in my country.

[San Antone]

Composer Samuel Andreyev has offered some thoughts on Boulez:

This, OTOH, I can watch, although I'd rather listen to some of Boulez's music. I wonder if anyone will be celebrating Samuel Andreyev's 100th anniversary?

[brewski]

Unfortunately I can't watch this in my country.

Same here! So sad.   (Well, not irreversibly so.) I'll catch up with some of the other Boulez footage that I haven't seen, and there's a mountain of that.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

This, OTOH, I can watch, although I'd rather listen to some of Boulez's music. I wonder if anyone will be celebrating Samuel Andreyev's 100th anniversary?

Well, I just posted it because I believed it would be of some interest. Andreyev isn't completely damning of Boulez and thinks rather highly of his earlier work. It's Boulez's later output that seems to give him problems.

[brewski]

To commemmorate the centennial, the New York Philharmonic has made available "The Papers of Pierre Boulez," an archive of items from his time there (1971-77).

[vers la flamme]

There doesn't appear to be a similar surge of Boulez here over the next few months, but the New York Philharmonic is doing something interesting: David Robertson is duplicating a program that Boulez conducted in 1974 with the orchestra. Quite an eye-opening lineup! I would love to be able to turn back the clock, and hear some of those Boulez/NY Phil concerts.

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Schubert: Symphony No. 2
Webern: Symphony, Op. 21
Boulez: Pli selon pli: Improvisations sur Mallarmé, I and II
Stravinsky: L'Histoire du soldat Suite

I was there! Cool concert, and it was great to see the Webern symphony live, but I also wondered about that particular Schubert symphony being there. Edit: And, of course, it was amazing to see excerpts from Pli selon pli. I would love to see the complete work some day.

[brewski]

I was there! Cool concert, and it was great to see the Webern symphony live, but I also wondered about that particular Schubert symphony being there. Edit: And, of course, it was amazing to see excerpts from Pli selon pli. I would love to see the complete work some day.

How great!

The more I look at this program, the more bizarre it appears. These days, no one would dare end with anything other than the Schubert. Now I'm thinking about duplicating this lineup at home, just to see if any insights occur in the program order.