Boulez: Pli selon Pli / Le Visage Nuptial / Notations / Sonatine / Sonate / Boulez / Barenboim

Boulez: Pli selon Pli / Le Visage Nuptial / Notations / Sonatine / Sonate / Boulez / Barenboim

Boulez: Pli selon Pli / Le Visage Nuptial / Notations / Sonatine / Sonate / Boulez / Barenboim
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CD Details

Edition: Music CD
Format: Box set, Import
CD Release Date: 2005-08-17
Music Label: Warner Classics UK
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Pli selon pli, for soprano & orchestra: Don
  2. Pli selon pli, for soprano & orchestra: Improvisation I Sur Mallarmé - Le Vierge, Le Vivace Et Le Bel Aujourd'hui
  3. Pli selon pli, for soprano & orchestra: Improvisation II Sur Mallarmé - Une Dentelle S'abolit
  4. Pli selon pli, for soprano & orchestra: Improvisation III Sur Mallarmé
  5. Pli selon pli, for soprano & orchestra: Tombeau
Music CD 2
  1. Le visage nuptial, for soprano, alto, female chorus & orchestra: Conduite
  2. Le visage nuptial, for soprano, alto, female chorus & orchestra: Gravité - L'emmuré
  3. Le visage nuptial, for soprano, alto, female chorus & orchestra: Le Visage Nupital
  4. Le visage nuptial, for soprano, alto, female chorus & orchestra: Evadne
  5. Le visage nuptial, for soprano, alto, female chorus & orchestra: Post-Scriptum
  6. Le soleil des eaux, for soprano, SATB chorus & orchestra: Complainte Du Lézard Amoureux
  7. Le soleil des eaux, for soprano, SATB chorus & orchestra: La Sorgue - Chanson Pour Yvonne
  8. Figures - Doubles - Prisms, for orchestra
Music CD 3
  1. Rituel: In Memoriam Bruno Maderna, for orchestra
  2. Messagesquisse, for solo cello & 6 cellos
  3. Notations (5 pieces developed from piano version), for orchestra: Notations 1 - Modéré - Fantasque
  4. Notations (5 pieces developed from piano version), for orchestra: Notations 4 - Rythmique
  5. Notations (5 pieces developed from piano version), for orchestra: Notations 3 - Très Modéré
  6. Notations (5 pieces developed from piano version), for orchestra: Notations 2 - Très Vif - Strident
Music CD 4
  1. Sonatine, for flute & piano
  2. Piano Sonata No. 1: I. Lent
  3. Piano Sonata No. 1: II. Assez large, rapide
  4. Dérive I, for flute, clarinet, piano, vibes, violin & cello
  5. Mémoriale, for flute & 8 instruments
  6. Dialogue de l'ombre double (2 versions), for clarinet (or bassoon) & electronics
  7. cummings ist der Dichter, for 16 solo voices, mixed chorus & chamber orchestra

Music reviews of Boulez: Pli selon Pli / Le Visage Nuptial / Notations / Sonatine / Sonate / Boulez / Barenboim

Music Review: A nice box set, but reissued at budget price in Warner's Apex line
Rating: 4 Stars

This Erato box set of works by Pierre Boulez covers almost every phase of his career. With the exception of the "Notations" and "Messagequisse", conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the composer himself leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra or the Ensemble Intercontemporain in the large works, and two of his favourite performers tackle the smallest works. These recordings have been reissued in Warner Classics' budget line Apex, so they come quite cheaply if you look around.

I'm not too thrilled with "Pli selon pli" (1957-1962), Boulez's grand setting of Mallarme for soprano and orchestra, as it tends to drag on. Still, at least here and on the Sony disc he still conducts with a certain violence, while in his conducting of the recently revised version on a 2002 Deutsche Grammophon disc the piece just falls apart. The Sony recording with soprano Halina Lukomsa is the more agressive, but this recording with Phyllis Bryn-Julison is more subtle, and the final movement "Don" comes across more powerfully here.

The "Sonatine" for flute and piano and the "Piano Sonata No. 1" are among Boulez's earliest acknowledged works, dating from 1946. The "Sonatine" is inspired by Schoenberg's "Chamber Symphony op. 9" in form and by Berg in its serial material, while both the "Sonatine" and the Piano Sonata find inspiration in Webern and Schoenberg for the virtuoso and "delirious" piano parts. The "Sonatine" is a rather unexciting work, I'd call it juvenalia even if Boulez thinks it worthy of preservation. However, the Piano Sonata No. 1 is a rich piece which displays new sides of itself on every listen. I quite enjoy Pierre-Laurent Aimard's performance here, it has a savagery to it unlike the methodical touch of Jumppanen or the nimbleness of Biret.

"Le Visage nuptial" (1946, final version 1988-89) and "Le Soleil des eaux" (1947, final version 1965), settings of Rene Char for soprano, mezzo-soprano, choir and ensemble, really should be more widely known, since they are among Boulez's most accessible works with their Berg-like lushness and clear dramatic qualities. This collection is one of the few places to get them, which presents a good motivation to buy it. Ditto for "cummings ist der Dichter" for mixed choir and orchestra (1970), much more experimental (even with some aleatoric writing), but a beautifully savage work of modernism.

"Figures-Doubles-Prismes" (1963/1968) was first conceived in 1957. Karlheinz Stockhausen was writing his famous piece "Gruppen" for three orchestras at the time, and Boulez was interested in the unorthodox arrangement of the performing ensemble. Boulez's own approach was to use a single orchestra but to mix its segments up, with brass and wind inside the string section, resulting in exotic combinations of timbre. The result is rather disappointing. Boulez still hasn't finished the piece in nearly a half-century, and listening to it one can immediately tell that it's still very much a sketch for something else. There's no especial difference between this and the Robertson recording on Naive.

The "Notations" for orchestra--five so far (I-IV and VII)--expansions of twelve Webern-like piano miniatures written in 1945 while Boulez was still a student--are Boulez at his best, glittering textures, powerful crescendi, exciting glissandi; it's no wonder that many orchestras (such as the CSO) regularly play one or two of them to open their concerts.Still, I'm not too impressed with Barenboim's conducting, and I'd recommend that by Robertson on Naive. Having heard some bootleg recordings of Boulez conducting, I think Robertson does better than even the composer himself, there's such a rich clarity in his work, while other conductors muddy it up.

Several other pieces here are also from Boulez's post-"Eclat" period, when he has gone from strength to strength and development music of beautiful colours and compelling action. "Derive" for small ensemble (1984) is one such piece, but it was recently re-recorded on Deutsche Grammophon in the "20/21" series with the same ensemble and conductor, and even venue, but it sounds much more "alive" there than here. "Memoriale" for flute and eight instruments is an acoustic selection from "...explosante-fixe...", Boulez's great concerto for two flutes, MIDI flute, orchestra, and electronics. The concerto is wild, but this piece isn't terribly interesting in comparison. "Dialogue de l'ombre double" for clarinet and electronics (1982-85) is best listened to on the DG disc, where the soloist is again Alain Damiens, but the recording was treated with IRCAM's Spatialisateur software. "Messagequisse", a brief work for eight cellos, has been called Boulez's most insubstantial work, since it's almost over before it starts, but the recordings here and on DG are still fairly entertaining.

Many of the works here are minor, making it the modern-classical equivalent of a collection of "B-sides", but some of the music here is quite beautiful and abounding in interesting ideas. If you've already fallen in love with Boulez's music and have heard the major new recordings in DG's "20/21" series, you should move on to here.
More Boulez: Pli selon Pli / Le Visage Nuptial / Notations / Sonatine / Sonate / Boulez / Barenboim free music reviews:
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