Pierre BOULEZ (b.1925)
Mémoriale for solo flute and eight instruments (cello, horn, viola,
three violins) (1985) [5.39];
Dérive 1 for cello, clarinet, flute, piano, vibraphone, violin (1984)
[6.26];
Dérive 2 for bassoon, cello, clarinet, English horn, harp, horn,
marimba, piano, vibraphone, viola, violin (1988, rev. 2001/2006) [50.40]
Fabrice Jünger (flute)
Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain (Guillaume Lafeuille (cello); Didier Muhleisen,
Thierry Gaillard (horn); Brice Duval, Patrick Oriol, Gaël Rassaert, Mathieu
Roussel, Nicolas Miribel (violin); Hervé Cligniez (clarinet); Roland Meillier
(piano); Claudio Bettinelli (vibraphone); Laurent Apruzzese (bassoon); François
Salès (English horn); Emmanuelle Jolly (harp); Roméo Monteiro (marimba))/Daniel
Kawka
rec. Salle Guy Porieux, Montbrison, France, June 2011
NAÏVE MO 782183 [63.10]
It seems that you either love him or hate him; not, that is, Boulez the musician
and conductor but Boulez the composer. Much of that goes back to the days
when he condemned opera houses to hell-fire and the symphony to the department
of hopeless causes. Now, at 87, he is the grand old statesman of modern music
and needs to be taken very seriously.
If you listen with an open mind to his work you encounter a sensitive and
meticulous ear for sonority and line which has, all too often, been overlooked.
For instance, right from the start of Mémorial the flute winds
itself around a dancing line often ending with a trill the pitch of which
is then captured and elongated by one of the two horns. This is a chamber
work for alto flute, two horns, three violins, two violas and cello. It is
fleeting, scintillating and crepuscular and is a memorial to a young flautist
Lawrence Beauregard who died in 1985 aged 31. He had been involved just previously
with IRCAM in Paris, founded by Boulez and with Boulez’s ‘Explosante-fixe’
which itself was a memorial to Stravinsky. The structure of the work was based
on Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, itself in memory
of Debussy. It is in several sections configured in a way sometimes called
‘chain-form’. Boulez’s Mémoriale flows continuously with no sense
of break or change of texture.
Perhaps it’s just a chip from the workshop, and you may say the same about
Dérives 1 written the year before. The scoring is similar
to that of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire that is flute, clarinet,
piano, violin and cello but with the magical inclusion of a vibraphone. The
title derives from several sources: first, one element is sparked into life
(derived from) a previous fragment, secondly from a series of six notes which
use the name of Paul Sacher the celebrated conductor and patron of music and
thirdly some of the material comes from a recently completed work of great
importance in Boulez’s output: ‘Répons’. Having said all that, just enjoy
the wash and gorgeous sounds, the trills and swirls that build to the central
climax, drop away and build again creating an image of quivering fantasy.
Dérives 2, scored for a small orchestra of eleven players,
began as an 80th birthday present for Elliott Carter, but as is typical of
Boulez the work constantly evolved in versions up to 2001, and finally in
2006 when, at last, Carter could hear his present. The derivations are fragments
of pieces by Ligeti and Carter. Robert Piencikowski in his wordy but generally
useful liner-notes, fails to tell us which, but Boulez uses these ideas isorythmically
as a 14th Century composer might, even employing hoquets. It is
quite extraordinary how Boulez spins his ideas out into a fifty minute duration
and just as remarkable is the evident concentration brilliantly brought to
bear. It is a coruscating score with moments of greater stillness. A more
static sound - as for example at about eleven minutes in – provides what are
called in the booklet “successive interruptions”. Gradually they become a
more prominent aspect of the entire work. Sometimes a chord is sustained with
isolated pockets of activity above it, before moving on again. There are occasional
passages when a soloist is highlighted surrounded by a halo of polyphony.
The clarinet, oboe and bassoon are especially noticeable in this connection.
The ensemble is grouped as two trios - one of woodwind and one of strings,
two duos - one of percussion and one including the harp and piano. They form
an axis around the solo horn which starts the work on A sharp. The final pages
build dramatically and excitingly towards the concluding reiteration of a
G sharp. This is repeated aggressively rather as Sibelius did at the end of
the Fifth Symphony. The whole work, apart from these occasional still moments,
is breathless and totally energising. I have in my listening life, as I am
sure have many of you, spent fifty minutes in the presence of music which
should not have lasted half that length. With this work I was never uninterested
or bored. My attention was maintained and I was also emotionally engaged in
its sound-world.
As well the essay mentioned above there are performer photographs. Daniel
Kawka writes a few words about his association with Boulez. He has a very
wide repertoire but with particular emphasis on French music. He must rank
as one of the top conductors and indeed musicians of our time, although as
yet, not so well known in the UK as he is on the Continent.
The performances on this CD are beyond reproach. The recording is clear and
detailed. This is great music but undoubtedly challenging. It is, however,
important and of lasting value.
Gary Higginson
This is great music but undoubtedly challenging. Important and of lasting
value.