Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

[André]

And excellent artists to boot !

[snyprrr]

THE END MUST BE NEAR for B if this is the topic of discussion on the Thread, lol!!!

ack- I didn't even know when I Posted this!!

Boy am I late to the party..... mmmm...

I have missed all the fun



OK, I'm at a loss here 10 days later... I mean, I heard NOTHING on Yahoo or the lamestream news... I mean, I mean...



I thought he was ONE figure that would get a tiny bit of Lester Holt, LOL!!



aye- now I'm just blank.... Boulez finally closed the book on 20th Century High Moderrnism... no one's left, right? We're done here, right?







desire to write endless bullshit is overwhelming!!!!!!

OVERWHELMING!!!!!!!




wow, Ok snyprrr, wrap yer hed around this and get on with the day...







WOW, i FEEL A CELEBRATION COMING ON.... RENT CAN WAIT, RIGHT?(whoops)








But I simply have no feelings on the matter at all.... yaaawn....





wow, I can't believe I missed this- wait, did this happen the same day as Bowie?? this is huuuge.... I'm just giddy....






BOULEZ BEFORE THE LORD GOD OF ALL CREATION------- HOW DID THAAAAT GO???

[Karl Henning]

But I simply have no feelings on the matter at all.... yaaawn....

That was quite a distended post expressing no feelings ....

[snyprrr]

That was quite a distended post expressing no feelings ....

ho's In Charge, I did not know about this until just now-ish, and I had already before laid out for the day's journey: Messiaen's 'Les Canyons'... no spoilers

mORE OF A SHOCK (whoops) ... to be clear W




did you get that?

[Mandryka]

The recording of Dérive 2 by Daniel Kawka takes twice as long as the composer's.

I like Dérive 2 - maybe more than the commercial recording of Explosante Fixe. I just learned that the commercial Explosante Fixe is a revision, and the first version was wilder. I'd like to give the first version a try.

Dérive 2 is based on early music ideas, certain ideas about counterpoint.  I wonder if other people in Boulez's world were also influenced by pre baroque composers. Carter maybe?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

The 24 minute version of Dérive II would probably be an earlier version of the work! A more recent version is recorded on the Complete Works box set of Ensmeble InterContemporain conducted by Boulez live in 2010 with a run time of 43:59 (Kawka does indeed take things at a broader pace on the disc you mention).

Unfortunately, Boulez has been quite insistent on 'definitive' versions of his compositions...and even in the Complete Works box set he curated, early versions of Dérive II, ...explosante-fixe... and Répons among other things aren't included in favour of the latest incarnations of the works. It might require some effort to hear some of the original versions of a piece like ...explosante-fixe...

[SimonNZ]

^Were there ever commercial recordings of those earlier versions?

[Daverz]

That was quite a distended post expressing no feelings ....

But you have to admire the idisyncratic capitalization, odd use of copious whitespace, and extreme number of emoticons... or not.

[Karl Henning]

But you have to admire the idisyncratic capitalization, odd use of copious whitespace, and extreme number of emoticons... or not.

It's a thing of something, truly.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

^Were there ever commercial recordings of those earlier versions?

I doubt it! But who knows....there might be a recorded radio broadcast around.....

[Karl Henning]

Unfortunately, Boulez has been quite insistent on 'definitive' versions of his compositions...

Aye, one of his obsessions.

Parenthetically, I was just at an old friend's for a party, who once on a time studied in Brussels and in France, and he told me that many musicians in France nicknamed the group the Ensemble Qu'on N'entend Rien.

[SimonNZ]

I doubt it! But who knows....there might be a recorded radio broadcast around.....

Ah, right. But there's no old and now super-collectable lps that he simply refused to have reissued with these things?

[Mandryka]

The 24 minute version of Dérive II would probably be an earlier version of the work! A more recent version is recorded on the Complete Works box set of Ensmeble InterContemporain conducted by Boulez live in 2010 with a run time of 43:59 (Kawka does indeed take things at a broader pace on the disc you mention).

Unfortunately, Boulez has been quite insistent on 'definitive' versions of his compositions...and even in the Complete Works box set he curated, early versions of Dérive II, ...explosante-fixe... and Répons among other things aren't included in favour of the latest incarnations of the works. It might require some effort to hear some of the original versions of a piece like ...explosante-fixe...

Apparently the first Explosante Fixe was really hard to play for the flautist. There may be a trace of it in the short piece called Memoriale, but I've not been able to really find out the relation between the two pieces of music.

I have some recordings of early versions of Répons. I'm not convinced that the revisions improved the music at all.

I'm impressed by Kawka - I might try to go to one of his concerts this year.

[ritter]

Apparently the first Explosante Fixe was really hard to play for the flautist. There may be a trace of it in the short piece called Memoriale, but I've not been able to really find out the relation between the two pieces of music.

I have some recordings of early versions of Répons. I'm not convinced that the revisions improved the music at all.

I'm impressed by Kawka - I might try to go to one of his concerts this year.

I was locky enogh to see Kawka and hois EOC do both Dérive's and Mémoriale live here in Madrid in 2011. A great concert by all accounts.

Concerning earlier versions, well, there's the "early" Dérive II included as a filler in the original CD relaese of Boulez's last recroding of Le Marteau sans maïtre on DG. This was not later included in the "Complete Works" box.

As for Mémoriale, I don't know if it's identical to the last section of the "final" ...explosante / fixe ..., as recorded by DG, but if not, it is very, very similar. Mémoriale is subtitled "...explosante / fixe... originel".

There is an early version of Tombeau (as a standalone piece, from before the completion of Pli selon pli, and with the subtitle--later dropped--"a la memoire du Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg") available on this CD:

[asin]B00004TVG0[/asin]

Regards,

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Aye, one of his obsessions.

Parenthetically, I was just at an old friend's for a party, who once on a time studied in Brussels and in France, and he told me that many musicians in France nicknamed the group the Ensemble Qu'on N'entend Rien.

[ritter]

A touching and at moments very funny personal tribute to Pierre Boulez by Gerald McBurney (creative director of A Pierre Dream, the multimedia show that premiered in Chicago and then travelled to other cities). In The Guardian.

Boulez's reservations about the Turangalîla remaied unabated, but instead of referring to it as "bordello music", he then used a rather clever phrase: "Bernini of the suburbs". 

[Karl Henning]

Sad-eyed Bernini of the lowlands . . . .

[Uhor]

Notations III deserves close study.

[Joaquimhock]

Fascinating musical tribute by G Kurtag to his friend Pierre Boulez:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDdVhFjER9g

[Karl Henning]

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[flash=560,315]http://www.youtube.com/v/zDdVhFjER9g[/flash]

http://www.youtube.com/v/zDdVhFjER9g