Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

Started by bhodges, January 17, 2008, 09:54:31 AM

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karlhenning


Cato

If someone commissioned our man Pete to compose a symphony...

Would he accept it?  If not, why not.

Anybody want to theorize what it would sound like?  What size orchestra?

Would he surprise everybody and do something NEO-ROMANTIC???!!!   :o
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

greg

Quote from: Cato on March 26, 2009, 02:41:22 PM

Would he surprise everybody and do something NEO-ROMANTIC???!!!   :o
I would love to hear that, given the music he is so familiar with. I like his music, but a neo-Romantic style would be a nice, fresh listen. I doubt he'd ever do that, though.

snyprrr

Sur Incises vs. Repons
Who wins?

DavidW

Quote from: Symphonien on December 14, 2008, 03:34:53 AM
Just came across this hilarious clip:

"Badass Boulez" 8)

(At about 45 seconds in you'll see why.)

That was baddass!  And a great performance too. 8) 8)

snyprrr

The library had the new DG Le Mateau, with Hilary Summers singing, and Derive 1 and Derive 2.



I haven't heard this piece since the beginning (when I probably hated Modern Music), and when I put it on now, after so much water, it sounded like home. I mean really,... the flute, guitar, and xylo percussion, diamond bright edge glittering garden of delights, I mean, whew! take about the stereotype of the stereotype, this stuff is the protean... anyway, yea, it's very comforting. I do think I would probably enjoy the rougher earlier version better though. This recording is so perfect, and I feel like I want a little bit o' uuhh in thar.

The first Derive piece is the short piece we've heard before, but the second is a 20min piece for 11 players. This is quite a refined form of all his latest pieces, all glittering diamond bright shapes as usual, but, hey, like Stravinsky said, I like it!

snyprrr

Quote from: James on January 20, 2010, 07:12:20 PM
Just a little factoid for you, that particular piece has been expanded and completed recently ... it plays close to 50 minutes now.

The first thing that pops in is Rihm's J&F/DG... hmmm,...the "50min piece", hey, it's the new thing, haha!

As I was listening to it I noticed how similar, on some level, late Xenakis began sounding like this, though, not really, but as was listening to Derive 2 I just got a "feeling" about what the last 20 years in music have been about,... I mean, even though there are no electronics, it seems to me that Boulez has been around the "it" of it all for so long now, that compositional technique per se has received something from the computer itself. Does that make sense (I'm reading it over and wondering, haha)?

Boulez seems to me so ubiquitous as to be practically invisible in my thinking about Modern Music. I totally take him, and his sound (especially the up-to-date Dervive 2 sound), for granted. For me, the same goes for Berio. I think, to Modern Music fans, Boulez and Berio are like the equivalent of Papa Haydn or something, no? Am I sentimental? ::)

I've been really itching to get Sur Incises for some time now, having had Repons since it came out. One could go totally broke just collecting Boulez, haha! I remember thinking back in the day, that, if DG came out with a Modern Music album, I HAD to get it, because DG could do no wrong. Whew, now we're playing catch up, haha. ...explosant, fixe... also, of course,has been on the radar.

Is Boulez our R. Strauss?

karlhenning

Quote from: snyprrr on January 21, 2010, 08:26:00 AM
I've been really itching to get Sur Incises for some time now . . .

I know the feeling! Or, rather, knew.  Just 90 minutes ago I fetched a copy for $8.99.

Franco

Just received (which I cannot wait to hear): 

Rituel in memoriam Maderna
Notations I, VII, IV, III, II (orchestrated 1980 & 1998)
Figure-Dobles-Prismes


Orchestre National de Lyon
David Robertson

bhodges

Quote from: Franco on January 21, 2010, 10:13:05 AM
Just received (which I cannot wait to hear): 

Rituel in memoriam Maderna
Notations I, VII, IV, III, II (orchestrated 1980 & 1998)
Figure-Dobles-Prismes


Orchestre National de Lyon
David Robertson

That does look very tasty.  I like Robertson a lot; some of my favorite concerts of the last few years have been with him at the helm.  And the Lyon orchestra may be a little underrated.  I have some friends (she's a pianist, her husband is a musicologist) who are talking about making a trip to Lyon just to hear the ensemble in person.

--Bruce

snyprrr

Just recently got Sur Incises and ...explosante-fixe..., and the Boulezathon is on. Along with Repons, which I've had for (wow!) 12 years, I finally get to fill out the picture a bit. After this, I'm thinking Derive 2 might be too much of a good thing (or, just enough!).

Sur Incises is one of those pieces I've built up in my mind to be one thing, and,... hold it,...this piece, right at the end, begins to sound like I envisioned,... the Living Escalator. After a couple of goes I'm hooked to this Avant Sale at Macy's, all hectic Modern Life, yet very serene. My only complaint is that I'm either not hearing the three harps all that well (I do hear the extremely high plucks, and some low), or Boulez's harp writing is extrememly strategic. Someone please help.

Messagesquisse has never been a piece I could pay attention to, but, all of a sudden I'm listening to this great reading, with beautiful solo cello. Of course, now I see why all the cellos. Just like there is multiplicity in all these pieces.

The piece I really couldn't wait to hear was Anthemes 2. I'd heard some citicisms, but I have no complaints. I like the "presentation" of the piece, and I wonder how much engineer Andrew Gerzso credit shares, in general (much like Andre Richard?). The electronic manipulations emphasize a lot of fun, such as the groovey pizz that keep perculating, and the real violin that keeps flitting about. I haven't yet been able to "see" the interactions between "performers", but there does seem to be a yeoman's job by Gerzso at the controls. I guess Boulez is no Stockhausen (please, I'm not even going there ::)). I know this piece probably isn't the last word in electronic violin (anyone?), but I enjoy it as entertainment. How to aurally compare to Nono??hmmm...



Moving right along. ...explosant-fixe... is the piece everyone seems to be pointing to, along with the other two big pieces, as his Magnum Opus. I find all three pieces complement each other. The flute concerto for excitement, Repons as the Boulez "symphony", and Sur Incises as the blonde with all the curves!

The other finds for me were the Notations and Structures. The former, Boulez's "Op.1", made me smile with an "I coulda done that" that could have only come from living through so much unconscious Boulez influence in my general Modern Life. I can't tell you what a revelation this was, much more than hearing the Klavierstucke of KS. And then, the Structures seem to take a quantum leap in complexity. Add to these pieces the Sonatine for fl/pn, and the Sonata No.1 for piano, and you're literally bathing in diamond like, crystalline textures. The early stuff I can follow, and then it starts getting interesting.

I also have the Erato (Apex) disc of chamber music, the Livre pour Quatuor, and the Sony Rituel, along with the odd DG piece. I used to have IdilB in the Piano Sonatas, but...

My question [/b] concerns Piano Sonatas 2-3. I'm thinking Pollini for No.2, just because of the program, but I don't know if there's an extra special 3, or not. Any recommends on these two?



PS- I'm actually thinking about getting all Boulez, Martre and Pli being next. I may favor the early records.

petrarch

#51
I can tell you that Pli was the ear-opener for me, even more so than Marteau. For some early pieces, there is a 4-CD set on Erato that is very good. Éclat is a jewel (on Sony, can be found very cheap). And there's also Polyphonie X, which is definitely worth a try (on Col Legno).
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

Franco

Quote from: James on January 21, 2010, 10:30:08 AM
It's a good recording to get if you're a newbie to Boulez's soundworld.
And yea ... from what I've seen of Robertson, he seems like one of the 'good guys'.

It is simply a very good recording, for anyone: (to use your phrase) a "newbie to Boulez's soundworld", or for someone like me who has been listening and appreciating Boulez for decades.

bhodges

Quote from: snyprrr on March 06, 2010, 11:53:47 PM
My question [/b] concerns Piano Sonatas 2-3. I'm thinking Pollini for No.2, just because of the program, but I don't know if there's an extra special 3, or not. Any recommends on these two?

I've only heard Pollini and Paavali Jumppanen (below), and the latter is terrific.  His CD of the three piano sonatas was one of the best recordings of 2005.

--Bruce

petrarch

Quote from: James on March 07, 2010, 11:41:54 AM
Cool little video supplement on Boulez/Stockhausen  ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/vBKdXTFMwEk

cont'd ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/9I7OWcCXyXQ

Those are taken from Simon Rattle's Leaving Home, a 7-part documentary on the music of the 20th century, which is quite interesting. I saw it on TV when it was broadcast originally and got the DVD box a few years ago; it is quite worth it. The only better thing would be Boulez's own La Musique du XXe siècle, but sadly that was never released on DVD.

Another one a propos is the Juxtapositions DVD on Boulez; there's a thorough analysis of Sur Incises by the maître himself with musicians from the EIC, aside from the bits about Éclat.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

snyprrr

I just got the Pollini and Jumppannen discs.

The Pollini,... WOW!! Leonine!

Yea, PS 2 has a beautiful violence to it, exactly in that funny French existentialist way. Oh, the gnarled trees, haha!! I'm bashing my father's teeth in, and such. I definitely see it as a "Last Sonata" type thing. Jumpp really has a refinement in the first mvmt that is total, whilst Pollini is just,..SMACK in the face 'there', wow, thrilling. I thought Pollini held the finale with a touch more forwardness. It will be fun comparing further.

In PS 1, I have Aimaird/Erato and Jumppannen. At least with the earlier recording you can hear a little work being done, haha. That IS a compliment towards the Jumppster's toss it off virtuosity, but I do sometimes like to hear some work being done too.

But, it was PS 3 which I had waited for, and,... and,... and, after PS 2, it's almost a ghost. It feels almost like a "Late" piece, haha. But no, it does have a luxuriousness to it, a plushness, that I wasn't expecting. Almost like Boulez is a softy! It does 'sound' easier than PS 2, or, more understandable, especially the Constellation-Miroir. It shocks me to say that this is what I consider easy listening, haha (in the respect that, if any of my circle heard it, their noses would all scrunch in displeasure).

Jumppannen really brings out the stuttering/halting style beautifully in Boulez's writing, and makes it very beautiful to listen to,... perhaps one of the most 'artistic' avant piano records, no? I just think his endless refinement of playing deserves special mention (and, of course, the DG sound).

Boulez discs fast approaching 10! Who would have thought? Not me.

kentel

Quote from: James on March 17, 2010, 09:03:37 AM
Idil Biret (Naxos) is great with the 1st PS. .. it's a solid disc all-round.

"...the Second Sonata does have this explosive, disintegrating and dispersive character, and in spite of its own very restricting form the destruction of all these classical moulds was quite deliberate". -Pierre Boulez

About his very first works (the 2 first piano sonatas, Structures, Poésie pour pouvoir, Polyphonie X etc ), Boulez said in 2000 : I grew tired of counting to twelve. That's interesting :) 

My opinion is that the older he grows, the better he is : Anthème II is one of his most exciting works.

--Gilles




DavidRoss

"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

CRCulver

Let's all wish Pierre a happy 85th birthday!

karlhenning