Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Webern, etc / Maurizio Pollini

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CD Details

Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1996-02-13
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Soundtracks:

Three Movements From 'Petrushka': 1. Danse russe. Allegro giusto
Three Movements From 'Petrushka': 2. Chez Petrouchka
Three Movements From 'Petrushka': 3. La semaine grasse. Con moto - Allegretto - Tempo giusto - Agitato
Piano Sonata No. 7 In B Flat Major: 1. Allegro inquieto - Andantino
Piano Sonata No. 7 In B Flat Major: 2. Andante caloroso
Piano Sonata No. 7 In B Flat Major: 3. Precipitato
Variations For Piano: I. Sehr massig
Variations For Piano: II. Sehr schnell
Variations For Piano: III. Ruhig fliessend
Second Sonata For Piano: 1. Extremement rapide
Second Sonata For Piano: 2. Lent
Second Sonata For Piano: 3. Modere, presque vif
Second Sonata For Piano: 4. Vif

Music reviews of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Webern, etc / Maurizio Pollini

Music Review: The Boulez is the main attraction!
Rating: 5 Stars

Other reviewers have praised the performance of the Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and to a lesser extent, the Webern. My review will focus primarily on Boulez's Second Sonata, which I believe is THE main dish of this generous, full-course meal prepared by Maestro Pollini.

Pierre Boulez is a controversial conductor, writer, and composer. Laconic in manner and speech, he has enraged quite a few people in his life. In his youth, he denounced Schoenberg's music as rhythmically obsolete, and as a middle aged man, declared tradition as "...the worst kind of mannerism...with no raison d'être..." Still kicking in his 80s as the Conductor Emeritus of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, we can be sure that he is unlikely to change; I suspect not few will celebrate the day he suspends all musical activities*.

Most detractors of Boulez dislike his active disinheritance of the past. Upon composing Structures I: for two pianos in the mid 1950s, Boulez reportedly set out to conjure music free of all 'impure influences', rejecting to adopt separate influences on the various parameters of music (compared, for example to Bartok who freely embraced Eastern European rhythm and scales with the contrapuntal techniques of J.S. Bach and the Sonata Form of the Viennese Classicist).

Another aspect of Boulez's music - particularly the Piano Sonatas - that repels novices of modern music is the seemingly purposeless and self-defeating complexities** that require superhuman dexterity to pull off the notes just to pass it off as a satisfactory performance. Composed in 1948, it ushered a new age of complexity in piano music that saw the rise of similarly (or exceeding) difficult works of Barraque, Xenakis, Cage, Stockhausen, Bussotti, Ferneyhough, and Finnissey. To the unprepared and the conservative, it signaled the end of the Golden Age of the piano.

Yet Boulez is a product of a very rigorous, traditional musical education of the Paris Conservatoire (his teachers included Olivier Messiaen). Boulez is not ignorant of the past - far from it. It is a known fact that the Second Piano Sonata shares structural similarities with Beethoven's monumental, four-movement Hammerklavier Sonata - it mimics the energetic and charged first movement, the quasi-scherzo and slow movements in reverse order, followed by a cacophonous fugue in the fourth movement. Boulez even shows his penchant for trills (as opposed to Nono) much like Beethoven; the trills are just as effective as an ornament as they were in the 19th century. It is an absolute delight!

Part of what makes this work arduous is the densely polyphonic/rhythmic nature. If I am allowed to speak from personal experience, I suggest new-listeners to revisit the oeuvres of Johann Sebastian Bach, particularly the Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue. Separate the horizontal lines according to register, and try to reconstruct the various threads in concert, simultaneously. I promise the effort will be worth it! Pollini's handling of the jagged, convoluted rhythms is superhuman. What seemed like random, computer-like sound-effects will re-emerge in your mind's year as strands of articulate argument, all fighting for a unified musical cause. Soon the work will appear surprisingly direct, offering unique visceral excitement that to my mind is equaled by very few in the entire piano repertoire. Use your ears like men!

Reviewers such as David Hurwitz criticized the work as a sterile essay, and the admirers of the work suffering from Stockholm syndrome. I believe he has the right to characterize the work as he sees it, but to brand those who are amazed by the work as poor, confused minds seems silly. If you listen carefully, Pollini's humming becomes apparent near the final moments of the first movement. I find myself humming to the entire movement. The dedication and passion of the performer is truly awesome.

*As a resident of Chicago, I have attended several of his concerts covering both the traditional and contemporary repertoire. His enthusiasm for promoting the works of the latter has not waned, and I highly recommend the curious to seek these events out.

** Marc Andre Hamelin, in his recent interview with Ethan Iverson has admitted that the rhythmic complexity was so taxing that he gave up learning the piece past a certain point.

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