Search - Pierre Boulez, Members of the Ensemble InterContemporain, Soloists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain :: Boulez: Sur Incises/Messagesquisse/Anthèms 2

Etudes of a profound sensual poet

scarecrow | Chicago, Illinois United States | 10/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Boulez's creativity has always been fascinated with a musical situation where the materials imply themselves, where layers,textures,timbres can reproduce themselves,where the materials generate themselves,and take essentially a life of their own. And here in these three relatively modest works we find Boulez almost harboring etude-like substances and implications.Sur Incises for instance implies a sensual poetic beauty,a dimension Boulez has engaged his entire creative life. He brings this profound dimension to the modernist repertoire he conducts as well. Knowing the various harmonics possibilities in strings,or alternate fingering in winds. But here in Sur Incises the opening piano tyrannical cell of an idea makes an entire galaxy of sound,very subtle cohere to it, like an uncompromising polar fixed point, where timbres can fly and emanate,and reproduce themselves. The marimba,its fast quips,especially its lower regions here is simply breathtaking, what it suggests,perhaps an attenuated timbre from a lost island. The work, the first movement "Moment 1" here is deeply evocative with a high level of shards,fragments,particles of timbres that cohere. The constituted timbres here of three pianos, three harps, and percussion is a fascinating situation in and of itself. The second movement "Moment 2"is more a surface piece with its reiterated tones is not as evocative, more music that simply moves in one-dimension. The reiterated tones reminded me of the Debussy's piano etude"pour les notes repetees".The title "Messagesquisse",is a portmanteau word a hybrid of "messages" and "esquisse"(sketches). It is for 7 violoncellos,where there is soloist,like a spine directing the dimensions,the shape of the work. And this functions quite well, where the leader commences the timbral proceedings,as in the opening ethereal harmonics,and everyone follows. The work has a shape like a modest etude, yet it seems to transcend that,with its multi-movement implications,and resting points.Yet the work simply traverses its materials fairly within well prescribed boundaries,with easy discernable functions. The work is dedicated to Paul Sacher,long a close supporter of Boulez in the early days when his genius was a well guarded secret.The solo violin as a genre has never been an interesting situation. Sebastian Bach of course has the Sonatas and Partitas, yet the Violoncello Suites seem to climb the heavens by comparison. Bartok's Unaccompanied Solo Sonata is another profound contribution to the literature. Also modern Violin Concertos are not in great abundance. And those who usually write one, only write one, Stravinsky,Berg,Schoenberg,Bartok, Barber,Adams. Within the perspective of a modernist extended musical language even Luigi Nono's work "La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura" where a solo violin is scoured with prerecorded material of it,which is electronically manipulated,(as here in Boulez Anthemes) is not an interesting piece. I didn't sense sophisticated manipulation here of the violin timbre. The trill sections,and on-going rush of tones are simply reverberated and smeared,where the rhythm is displaced by a beat, or half-beat. The electronics as well doesn't retransform the violin timbre in any way interesting,with its simple ascending glissandi .Within the large spectrum of electronic manipulation this is fairly commonplace. The import of the title should have suggested something more interesting, the haunting strophic psalm setting, the Anthemes.Still this is again like an etude,and a good one in the simple transformations. Yet I can see innumerable clones of this piece,if they haven't been written already."

Beyond comparison

frussianophile | in some arabian wind | 06/23/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am willing to wager that when all the books are written on music in the late twentieth-early twenty-fisrt century, that the name of Pierre Boulez will rise far higher than his more famous (at the time being) contemporaries.Boulez is an interpreter extrordinaire. His Debussy, Schoenberg, Messiaen, and Webern are among the best. And though many are apparently too deaf to hear it, his Mahler is a thing of greatness (just listen to the sixth). As a composer Boulez is perhaps even more formidable. Repons, though influenced by Webern and Messiaen takes music to a whole new level.The variety of Boulez' work is vast. Pli Selon Pli is the best piece of vocal writing since Mahler walked the earth. Eclat/Multiples ranks with the best works of Ravel and Debussy. Yet Sur Incises is Boulez crowning achievement (so far). I cannot begin to fathom the kind of driving genius it takes to mould pieces like those included here. This is music like it was meant to be.I give no comparison here...only recommendation. Get this disc."

Three recent works that show that Boulez can engage and thri

Christopher Culver | 06/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Deutsche Grammaphon disc, part of the "20/21" series of contemporary music recordings, contains three pieces by Pierre Boulez from the last quarter of the 20th century. Boulez's recent expansions of his venerable pieces from the 1950s ("Le Marteu Sans Maitre") and 1960s ("Pli Selon Pli") are increasingly overlong and plodding, but from this disc it's clear that the fresh pieces he's written lately are full of great energy and momentum, alongside the gorgeous warmth of mid-frequency sounds that has always been a hallmark of Boulez's art. This music uses all twelve tones, but it is never "dissonant", its formal scheme may be too complicated for some to grasp completely, but it's never noisy.



"Sur Incises" (1996/1998) for three pianos, three harps, and three percussion instruments is a two-movement expansion of Boulez's earlier "Incises" for solo piano. He had considered writing a piano concerto, but was frustrated that most of the orchestra can't match the piano's speed. So, in a nod to Stravinsky's "Les Noces", he added two more pianos, and brought in instruments which can mirror certain qualities of the piano. The form of the music consists of alternating tempos, one slow and meditative where one instrument often takes a spotlight while others accompany, the other wild and energetic where all nine instruments compete virgourously. "Sur Incises" requires great virtuosity, and is surely one of the most challenging pieces of contemporary music. The soloists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain handle it flawlessly. All in all, a fantastic piece. No wonder it won the Grawemeyer Award in 2001. I should mention that if you really dig "Sur Incises", there's a recent DVD in the Juxtapositions series that contains a very layman-friendly lecture by Boulez on the piece, as well as a complete performance by the same soloists as here.



"Messagequisse" for seven cellos (1977) dates from two decades before either of the other two pieces on this disc, but fits in very well here. Written for a solo cello backed up with a small cello ensemble, the piece begins with a slow mournful melody played on the primary cello with pizzicato accompaniment by the others. A very furiously bowed section follows, a contrast with much the same effect as in "Sur Incises". My only complaint is that it's a short piece, and it's really over before one has much time to come to grips with its intriguing soundworld. The following "Anthemes 2" for violin and electronics (1997) is much longer, an electronic expansion of a work originalyl for violin solo. In much the same way as Nono's "La lontanza...", here we have a violinist played against himself, and the direct "realness" of the living soloist stands in eerie opposition to the electronic sound. There's no ultimate form here, rather the work consists of a series of brief episodes, but each new exploration follows the last in a harmonious manner. For some reason, I'm especially tempted to compare this work to Unsuk Chin's "Xi" for electronics, but there's a much more human touch.



Along with the wild flute concerto "...explosante-fixe...", available on another DG disc, the material here makes for a great introduction to Boulez. If you've heard that he's only a snobbish intellectual who doesn't understand the concept of fun, these pieces will quickly show you that his art is entirely in tune with a desire to rock out."