Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

[ritter]

The Catalogue illustré de l'ouevre de Pierre Boulez arrived chez ritter on Saturday, two days after its release on March 27 by the Philharmonie de Paris

It's a handsome, profusely illustrated, 392-page hardcover book, with a total of 112 entries (including withdrawn or incomplete works, and with some inevitable duplication resulting from the "work-in-progress" approach Boulez had to most if his compositions).

The ordering is chronological, in seven sections covering different periods of the composer's career (each section has an appropriate title taken from Boulez's writings or compositions -- e.g., 1942-1945 falls under the heading Relevés d'apprenti).

Each work has a detailed description and comments, including a discography.

Certainly, an essential addition to the bibliography of Boulez, and a labor of love by editor Alain Galliari and all those involved.

[Louis]

IDK if someone mentioned it already but the BBC aired a new performance of "Pli selon Pli" for Boulez's birthday.

[San Antone]

Pierre Boulez : Pli selon pli (1957-1962)
BBC Symphony Orchestra



Boulez composed Improvisations I and II, for soprano and percussion ensemble, in 1957. In 1959 he wrote Improvisation III for soprano, instrumental ensemble and a large group of percussion, as well as Tombeau, for soprano and large orchestra.In 1960, he completed Don in a version for soprano and piano. In 1962, he rescored this movement for soprano and orchestra, and also rescored Improvisation I, completing the work in its initial form.
 (wiki)

Most of this information came from this source: Jameux, Dominique (1991), Pierre Boulez, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-66740-9

[San Antone]

Interesting combination of late works for piano by Debussy bookended with two of Boulez's late works.




1. Pierre Boulez: Une page d'éphéméride (2005) 05:22
2. Claude Debussy: Etudes pour piano Livre II (1915): Pour les degrés chromatiques 02:19
3. Claude Debussy: Etudes pour piano Livre II (1915): Pour les agréments 05:27
4. Claude Debussy: Etudes pour piano Livre II (1915): Pour les notes répétées 03:20
5. Claude Debussy: Etudes pour piano Livre II (1915): Pour les sonorités opposées 05:38
6. Claude Debussy: Etudes pour piano Livre II (1915): Pour les arpèges composés 05:04
7. Claude Debussy: Etudes pour piano Livre II (1915): Pour les accords 04:51
8. Pierre Boulez: Incises (2001) 10:55

[Karl Henning]

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.

Very nice!

[ritter]

Cross-posted from the New Releases thread:

No cover art yet, and no online mentions that I can see yet, but the Catalogue illustré de l'oeuvre de Pierre Boulez (published last week) lists a (2025) release of piano music by Boulez performed by Ralph van Raat on Naxos, including the world premières of two peces of juvenilia (which were not available to the public until now), Trois Psalmodies and Thème et variations pour la main gauche. The disc will also include the short Fragment d'une ébauche (from 1987), which has been recorded previously by Dimitri Vassilakis and by Michael Wendeberg.

Raat had already recorded the early Prélude, toccata et scherzo (for Naxos, on a CD released in 2020).

[Papy Oli]

Arte advertised today in their newsletter a Boulez documentary on their website "Towards The unknown".

Had a quick glance, contributors include at least Aimard, Salonen, a French conductor I recognise but can't name...



https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/115573-000-A/pierre-boulez-towards-the-unknown/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=en

[Mandryka]

Arte advertised today in their newsletter a Boulez documentary on their website "Towards The unknown".

Had a quick glance, contributors include at least Aimard, Salonen, a French conductor I recognise but can't name...



https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/115573-000-A/pierre-boulez-towards-the-unknown/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=en

There's been a big series on France Culture, a retransmission, which I haven't heard

https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/les-nuits-de-france-culture/pierre-boulez-les-litterateurs-ont-montre-la-voie-aux-musiciens-dans-la-facon-d-etablir-un-recit-5614801

[ritter]

Arte advertised today in their newsletter a Boulez documentary on their website "Towards The unknown"...

It's rather well produced... Recommended!

...

Had a quick glance, contributors include at least Aimard, Salonen, a French conductor I recognise but can't name...

...

It's Xavier-François Roth.

[Mandryka]

Oublie signal lapidé

[ritter]

Alain Galliari talks about the recently published Catalogue de l'Oeuvre de Pierre Boulez, which he edited. It's in French, but automatic English subtitles can be obtained.

[Mandryka]

This is the second recording of the Boulez Livre pour quatuor, both from Diotima. I'd always assumed that, apart from the single movement Manoury completed, it would be pretty much the same as their first. How wrong I was - the second one seems tremendously inspired, and it makes me convinced that the quartet is one of the most interesting mid century modernist works I've ever heard. It feels incandescent, youthful, a sense of excitement at the discovery of new ways to make music. Even a jaded old goat like yours truly can't resist.

Written at much the same time as, for example, the Schoenberg trio.

[Papy Oli]

To the Boulez aficionados in the house:

I am currently listening to the Livre pour Quatuor posted above by @Mandryka , just going through IV.

I was reading the booklet earlier on and because of the amount of "technicalities" mentioned within due to the arrangement/completion element, I wanted to ask: Do you enjoy Boulez's works overall thanks to some composing/theory knowledge that helps you understand and therefore enjoy the structure of it all ? Or do you just enjoy because it talks to you simply on a "melodic" level (I have none of the former, so would solely rely on the latter)?

Just to be clear: It is not a facetious question, nor is my use of quotation marks on melodic (just for the lack of a better word I guess). The reason I ask is that the Boulez DG box is one that I (willingly    ) dip a toe into every month or so and I give a go to one work or another. Be it, Pli, Marteau, Derives, Notations, Sur Incises, Répons... It intrigues me (somewhat shortly, at best) but it never reaches enjoyment levels. Just like now with Diotima today. Made it to IV. Without knowing what's what.

I have made tiny in-roads with other "prickly" (to me) composers (say Berg, Webern, Schonberg, Schnittke, Bartok SQ ..) but Boulez just eludes me.

[Spotted Horses]

To the Boulez aficionados in the house:

I am currently listening to the Livre pour Quatuor posted above by @Mandryka , just going through IV.

I was reading the booklet earlier on and because of the amount of "technicalities" mentioned within due to the arrangement/completion element, I wanted to ask: Do you enjoy Boulez's works overall thanks to some composing/theory knowledge that helps you understand and therefore enjoy the structure of it all ? Or do you just enjoy because it talks to you simply on a "melodic" level (I have none of the former, so would solely rely on the latter)?

Just to be clear: It is not a facetious question, nor is my use of quotation marks on melodic (just for the lack of a better word I guess). The reason I ask is that the Boulez DG box is one that I (willingly    ) dip a toe into every month or so and I give a go to one work or another. Be it, Pli, Marteau, Derives, Notations, Sur Incises, Répons... It intrigues me (somewhat shortly, at best) but it never reaches enjoyment levels. Just like now with Diotima today. Made it to IV. Without knowing what's what.

I have made tiny in-roads with other "prickly" (to me) composers (say Berg, Webern, Schonberg, Schnittke, Bartok SQ ..) but Boules just eludes me.

FWIW, I think of Boulez' music, not so much as melody, but as unfolding gestures. And often I engage at the level of sonority.

[Mandryka]

Do you enjoy Boulez's works overall thanks to some composing/theory knowledge that helps you understand and therefore enjoy the structure of it all ? Or do you just enjoy because it talks to you simply on a "melodic" level (I have none of the former, so would solely rely on the latter)?

 

In the case of the quartet, neither. The quartet in particular isn't specially melodic.  There are textures, timbres, colours of course, and most importantly the way they are juxtaposed.

With forward looking music after Beethoven op 131 and the Schumann Klavierstucke, the perceived form is often a bunch of diverse fragments held together somehow by musical forces analogous to physical attraction and repulsion -- centripetal and centrifugal forces. The musical analogue of this 1923 piece by Kandinsky

[Papy Oli]

FWIW, I think of Boulez' music, not so much as melody, but as unfolding gestures. And often I engage at the level of sonority.

Interesting perspective. Thank you.

[Papy Oli]

In the case of the quartet, neither. The quartet in particular isn't specially melodic.  There are textures, timbres, colours of course, and most importantly the way they are juxtaposed.

With forward looking music after Beethoven op 131 and the Schumann Klavierstucke, the perceived form is often a bunch of diverse fragments held together somehow by musical forces analogous to physical attraction and repulsion -- centripetal and centrifugal forces. The musical analogue of this 1923 piece by Kandinsky

So heterogeneous bits flying about, and not to worry too much if or how they relate?

I'll try observing that painting when I next listen to Pierrot 

[Mandryka]

So heterogeneous bits flying about, and not to worry too much if or how they relate?
 

No, on the contrary, heterogeneous bits flying about which form a whole because of the forces of attraction and repulsion which exist amongst them. How they form a perceived whole is something that will worry aestheticians about a lot, in the Boulez sonata, in the Schumann op 12 Fantasiestuecke, in LvB op 131 and op 130, in Kandinsky's painting, in the Callot dwarfs. In all these cases, although each element is self contained, and though there are commonalities, it is their diversity which recommends them for inclusion and which binds them together.  (I mention the Callot because Schumann was at least indirectly aware of them, via ETA Hoffmann.)

[San Antone]

To the Boulez aficionados in the house:

Do you enjoy Boulez's works overall thanks to some composing/theory knowledge that helps you understand and therefore enjoy the structure of it all ? Or do you just enjoy because it talks to you simply on a "melodic" level?

While I do have some composing/theory knowledge (having earned a degree in music theory and composition) when I listen to music by a composer like Boulez I do not actively emploiy that knowledge.  It is more a case of my actively listening and trying to follow the logic of the work. 

IMO Boulez is a composer concerned with texture, timbre, balance, surprise, and overall organization. Melodic content, such as it is, appears to me similar to how Webern spread a melody out over several instruments or voices.

That said, Livre pour quatuor is not among my favorites of his work. Primarily because this work for string quartet lacks the diversity of timbre that I find most appealing in his work.

[Papy Oli]

No, on the contrary, heterogeneous bits flying about which form a whole because of the forces of attraction and repulsion which exist amongst them. How they form a perceived whole is something that will worry aestheticians about a lot, in the Boulez sonata, in the Schumann op 12 Fantasiestuecke, in LvB op 131 and op 130, in Kandinsky's painting, in the Callot dwarfs. In all these cases, although each element is self contained, and though there are commonalities, it is their diversity which recommends them for inclusion and which binds them together.  (I mention the Callot because Schumann was at least indirectly aware of them, via ETA Hoffmann.)

While I do have some composing/theory knowledge (having earned a degree in music theory and composition) when I listen to music by a composer like Boulez I do not actively employ that knowledge.  It is more a case of my actively listening and trying to follow the logic of the work. 

IMO Boulez is a composer concerned with texture, timbre, balance, surprise, and overall organization. Melodic content, such as it is, appears to me similar to how Webern spread a melody out over several instruments or voices.

That said, Livre pour quatuor is not among my favorites of his work. Primarily because this work for string quartet lacks the diversity of timbre that I find most appealing in his work.

Thank you both for your clarifications and approaches.

Since the Livre pour Quatuor does not really fit with these, which other work would you recommend me to focus on that would best fit, so to speak, with what you have sought/found in Boulez?

Also @Spotted Horses .

Thank you.