Pierre Boulez Lukomsko BBC Symphony Orchestra - Pli Selon Pli (7 tracks) +Album Reviews

A masterpiece...

12/04/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, so one's idea of a masterpiece is not someone else's idea. Nevertheless, I can't refrain myself, especially since Boulez is often depicted as all brain and no heart. How wrong! OK, so I haven't sat down with the score to do a row analysis of "Pli Selon Pli" -- but knowing Boulez's serial procedures, that might be rather impossible. But when I listen to it, I don't think of all the row forms and permutations (though I do notice a few), but rather the grand sweep, the narrative, the variety of colours and textures, the exquisite vocal writing, and most of all, the sheer beauty of this work. And yes, I did say BEAUTY! This, the Second Piano Sonata, and "Le Visage Nuptial" are my favorite Boulez works. I urge any adventurous souls to get this CD to discover one of the most striking pieces of music from this now-quickly-passing-century."

Mallarme never had it so good

klangfarbenguy | 01/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Boulez's masterpiece is "Pli selon pli," a set of five works for varying ensembles and voice.

The texts on Mallarme are set exquisitely in the inner works using beautifully angular lines and exotic, ringing, resonant instrumentation. These is a wonderful sense of spaciousness here and Boulez lets you luxuriate in his brilliant, richly painted sound colors. Although the title might suggest dense lines of counterpoint, "Pli selon pli" (and most all of Boulez's work) is more reliant on glittering explosions of sound strung together with the resonances of those explosions connecting them. This may be one of the most beautiful pieces of European avant garde.

Boulez has revised "Pli selon pli" several times (other recordings exist on Erato and DG). Each revision has seen an expansion of the instrumentation and added a smoother sheen of sound to the original. I find this regrettable. The grit and daring of the earlier versions is lost among the filigree of the revised versions. Certainly, the revisions are masterful in their orchestration and could only be produced by a musical mind as sophisticated as that of Boulez. But get the early recordings and feel your heart race with the thrill of discovery.

"

Pli Selon Pli is a work Everyone Should Know

klangfarbenguy | 06/04/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pli Selon Pli is one of the masterworks of the twentieth century, written with caution and intelligence in a time when fashion was beginning to turn against the 'modernist' aesthetic, originally incorperating ideas of chance in vogue at the moment ingeniously while not compromizing the ideals of Boulez. While the revisions of Pli Selon Pli have removed actual elements of 'chance performance' (allowing the performers flexibility in the order of sections in the form) as Boulez's vision for the piece crystalized, thus removing the representation of Mallarme's vision of 'a book that would endlessly permutate,' the solidification of form in the 3rd movement clairified Boulez's stance against chance elements he considered arbeitary, which he considered an abberation of the composer's purpose. This element reveals one aspect of Boulez's genius in Pli Selon Pli - While manifestly a portrait of the life of art, an artist (as abstractions) and Stephan Mallarme', it is also a self portrait. The secretive Boulez gives one the feel of the reality that Pli Selon Pli is at times Boulez wearing a Mallarme' mask, which is really one of the points of the work. To be engima is what is implied by the title 'a fold within a fold.' The quality of the performance and the sound quality of the recording is not immaculate, but the ensembles and recording technology available today are perks of 20 years of advancement from the time of this recording. As this is the only recording that I know of for Pli Selon Pli still available, it is a steal for the price of approximatly ten dollars, at which it is offered here."

Good disc if you like Boulez, but not a recent recording.

Karl Henzy | 01/06/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"A correction is in order: the Grammaphone reviewer seems to think this is a recent recording. It is a 1995 release, but it's an ADD recording dating back to 1969. This is actually a plus if you think, like I do, that Boulez's continual manipulations of his earlier works are generally not to be welcomed. You'll like Pli Selon Pli if you liked Le Marteau Sans Maitre (available now, I think, only on French import). You get more melismatic vocal lines with, again, sparse accompaniment, this time by an orchestra rather than a chamber group, as in Marteau. The Mallarme lyrics don't make much more sense than Char's do in Le Marteau, but this seems to be how Boulez prefers it, since the music remains "absolute" without clear textual reference points. For my taste, Boulez is a little too austere, a little too addicted to theories--I prefer the magic of Lutoslawski and the explosiveness of Carter."

A sharper-edged version

R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 08/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In honor of Pierre Boulez's 80th birthday this year, I decided to check out this 1969 recording of "Pli Selon Pli." The 2001 recording on DG, with Boulez conducting his Ensemble Intercontemporain and soprano Christine Schafer, underwhelmed me (see my review), and I was intrigued by those who said they preferred this earlier version. It is very different, there's no doubt about that -- it's sharper-edged, no surprise as this has been the tendency of Boulez in general, to move toward a smoother, more homogenized sound, more Debussian, in his later years.

The soprano voice of Halina Lukomsa is completely different in character from Christine Schafer -- Lukomsa sings with lots of vibrato, a very mannered, very classical style, whereas Schafer's vocal line is smoother and more natural, blending more with the instrumental ensemble. The BBC Symphony Orchestra, led by Boulez, plays boldly, with instrumental voices clearly separated. Again, the 2001 version submerges the lines into the flow. Here, Paul Stingl on guitar and Hugo d'Alton on mandolin, who are given special billing, really jump out at you, while their counterparts on the 2001 recording are not accorded the same attention because they don't stand out nearly as much.

It's hard for me to say which version is better -- I have no doubt that Boulez is happier with the level of performance his own Ensemble brings, with much more practice, and more familiarity with his style and intentions than the BBCSO had back in 1969. But there is a bold, radical edge that is lost. One thing I am quite sure of, and that is that "Pli Selon Pli" was already too long at about an hour, but instead of tightening it up, Boulez was indulgent and added 10 minutes so that the recent recording is 70 minutes long. This earlier recording has the virtue of adding an additional piece, "Livre pour cordes," a superb 10-minute work for strings composed in 1968.

In general, I have found that all of the discs in this PIERRE BOULEZ series on Sony are excellent, and at a bargain price. Cumulatively they represent a treasure trove of the 20th century avant-garde."

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