Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

[Benji]

Off topic!!

Toucan play at that game. 

[petrarch]

This thread is supposed to be about Boulez; I once was in a performance he conducted, I have a growing interest in understanding him, so perhaps the thread could be returned to its primary objective....now.

Might I suggest Relevés d'apprenti, a delightful collection of some of his writings and Penser la musique aujourd'hui, for some of his theoretical approach.

I have been to more concerts of his music conducted by him than I can remember (Marteau, Répons, Anthèmes II, Dialogue de l'ombre double, Notations, ...explosante-fixe... and others), and it is in concert that you can truly admire the finely crafted music, imagined by a keen ear and put on paper by someone for whom l'écriture is central to his aesthetic.

[MDL]

Yet more misinformation, originally spewed by the so-called Renaud Machard and occasionaly repeated in spite of its falsehood getting exposed. In interview after interview Boulez has made it clear he had given up on any Opera project.

This story is taking its time to die. Yesterday's Times (Nov 13th) stated that Boulez's opera based on Godot will be premiered by La Scala in 2015. I did a bit of a double-take when read that. An opera by Boulez?! That would have been intriguing.

[Joaquimhock]

This story is taking its time to die. Yesterday's Times (Nov 13th) stated that Boulez's opera based on Godot will be premiered by La Scala in 2015. I did a bit of a double-take when read that. An opera by Boulez?! That would have been intriguing.

French composer Gérard Pesson (modernist but not die-hard Boulezian) who reads his musical diary once a month at midnight on French radio France-Musique talked this week about this rumour during his program. He said it was for the opera of Lyons (!) but that he had extreme difficulty to believe a single word of the sentence "Boulez is writing an opera after Beckett's Godot for 2015" even, he said, if "it was written in Le Monde... ;-)

[karlhenning]

Most interesting.

[DavidW]

Sadly, it appears that pbs is not airing that concert, even though they aired the Mahler 7.   Sounded like a great concert though, wish I was there.

[bhodges]

Yes, ditto--wish they were broadcasting it.  I mean, what says "holiday cheer" like the Ligeti Violin Concerto!   

(Seriously, I love the piece.)

--Bruce

[DavidW]

Nothing says cheer like holiday xmas music like Penderecki's Christmas Symphony and Lutoslawski's Polish Christmas Carols... oh wait...

[bhodges]

Nothing says cheer like holiday xmas music like Penderecki's Christmas Symphony and Lutoslawski's Polish Christmas Carols... oh wait...

That's right!   

--Bruce

[(poco) Sforzando]

Next Monday, there will be an (already sold-out) all-Boulez program at Columbia University, with the composer in attendance. Anybody (besides me) from here going?

[Cato]

Next Monday, there will be an (already sold-out) all-Boulez program at Columbia University, with the composer in attendance. Anybody (besides me) from here going?

Again, no, but yes, again, give us a report!  Please!

And if the Mahler Seventh Symphony concert mentioned above is the same one I heard on the radio (most probably) it is not to be missed!

And the Godot opera rumor is still clogging the Internet: Renaud Machard does seem to be the source.

[Joaquimhock]

And the Godot opera rumor is still clogging the Internet: Renaud Machard does seem to be the source.

Just ask directly to the source then! : http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/em/deraisonnable/contact.php?e_id=90000057

[(poco) Sforzando]

A very interesting evening at Columbia's Miller Theatre last night, for a variety of reasons. The program was scheduled to start a 8, and was supposed to present 1 ½ hours of music (a relief for me, as I thought it meant I'd get home by 11:30); somehow it managed to finish at 10:30, and much of that was given over to the latest version of Dérive II, which was easily 50 minutes long and followed a 20-minute talk between Boulez and Ara Guzulemian, dean and provost at Juilliard and the only person whom I've ever heard address Boulez as "Pierre."

As Bruce Hodges remarked to me, if you dropped a bomb in Miller Theatre last night, you'd probably wipe out half of New York's musical elite. Among the better known figures in attendance were Charles Rosen, Charles Wuorinen, and Elliott Carter, who at 102 still gets around pretty well. The performing group was the splendid Talea Ensemble, conducted by James Baker, who is also principal percussionist for the NYC Ballet and I'm sure was grateful for a chance to do something other than the season's 50 Nutcrackers. There were four pieces on the first half, starting with the beautiful Dérive I in a stunningly sensuous performance that sounded particularly well in Miller's very live, bright acoustic. Pianist Anthony Cheung then did a fine job with the 12 Notations, most of which are not technically very difficult or virtuosic for the pianist but which call for detailed attention to rhythm and phrasing. Soprano xx then performed the first two Mallarmé Improvisations in their original chamber scoring; I found her very adept, but somewhat cool in temperament, and I have to admit the second of the two seemed to me a bit too long, but that was nothing compared to what happened in the second half.

The interview with Guzulemian followed the intermission, and Boulez still seems to get around well and is obviously as articulate as ever. The intent was to touch on all the pieces being played as a kind of mini-retrospective of Boulez's composing career, and the interviewer mentioned (at least three times) that this was the last birthday celebration for Boulez this year, which I found a bit embarrassing for obvious reasons. There were no major revelations in the interview, which touched on Boulez's association with Messiaen, his dislike towards René Leibowitz as an academician, the influence of Balinese gamelan on the Improvisations, his expansion of Notations in orchestral form while he was conducting the Ring, and so forth. When asked what he planned to continue composing, Boulez spoke of completing the orchestral Notations but said nothing about an opera, nor was he asked.

Finally, the US première (or maybe it wasn't) of Dérive II, and this is one of those very large works Boulez has been writing of late such as Répons and Sur Incises. I heard an earlier version of Dérive II in Carnegie Hall about five years ago and remembered feeling it just went on and on; as I thought after hearing this one, it just went on and on and on and on and on. My feeling about Boulez's later work (i.e., the work following Rituel) is that it has become more coloristic and less inventive than his earlier pieces. I don't know if when he started conducting more and more, he lost his concentration as a composer; or whether he started losing concentration as a composer, he turned more to conducting. But this piece seemed to me overlong, shapeless, and clichéd in its materials. Scale figures, repeated note motifs, and even long legato solo passages for violin, cello, and English horn all sounded very different from the more individualized materials of Boulez's youth. If the Notations recall Schoenberg, that's understandable in a young composer; but here is an older composer who seems to have run out of steam. I wonder on hearing this very tired and very long work if Boulez senses this himself; whatever the case, I confirmed with Bruce after the performance that my assessment wasn't the only one.

The composer did receive a standing ovation at the end, not surprisingly. I joined in too, but for the very great career as a whole, and not the unfortunate work at the end of it.

[Mirror Image]

Has Boulez ever conducted any of Dutilleux's music? Dutilleux seems to be right up Boulez's alley.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Thanks for this. I honestly like Sur Incises & Répons from his later music very much ... but I have two 2010 live bootlegs (aka radio broadcasts) recordings of Dérive II (with him conducting on both occasions) and haven't managed to sit through either, and nothing about it pulls me back  ...

I certainly prefer both of those works to D. II. Actually the Carnegie performance of Répons was quite exciting in some ways, though some of that had to do with the antiphonal placement of the musicians and the electronics  - and even the lighting effects - as much as the actual music.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Has Boulez ever conducted any of Dutilleux's music? Dutilleux seems to be right up Boulez's alley.

Start here. This may surprise you:
http://cf.groups.yahoo.com/group/forum_classique/message/14084

But I read an interview from about 5 years ago where Boulez's attitude towards Dutilleux has mellowed considerably. Can't find it right now, however.

[Mirror Image]

Start here. This may surprise you:
http://cf.groups.yahoo.com/group/forum_classique/message/14084

But I read an interview from about 5 years ago where Boulez's attitude towards Dutilleux has mellowed considerably. Can't find it right now, however.

I often disagree with Boulez, but I had no idea of how ruthless he was to other composers. I think it's a shame that musicans of Boulez's stature have to degrade composers who don't share the same views as him. Boulez has mellowed out through the years, because one thing I can't stand is someone who is arrogant enough to proclaim their way is the only way and everybody else is wrong.

[CRCulver]

Has Boulez ever conducted any of Dutilleux's music? Dutilleux seems to be right up Boulez's alley.

Dutilleux is rather aloof from the French musical establishment and has said some harsh words about Boulez in the past.

[Mirror Image]

Dutilleux is rather aloof from the French musical establishment and has said some harsh words about Boulez in the past.

Did you read the article that was linked above? In the article, it has quotes from Dutilleux in which he basically said (to paraphrase here) that Boulez's attitude about composers who didn't share his same musical outlook were wrong. If Boulez wasn't such an a****** than perhaps Dutilleux would have had a better footing with the French establishment. Anyway you look at it, I think history will be kind to Dutillieux and his contributions to music are noteworthy.

[(poco) Sforzando]

. . . one thing I can't stand is someone who is arrogant enough to proclaim their way is the only way and everybody else is wrong.

But that's the essence of Boulez's character.