Exquisite Labyrinth: The Music of Pierre Boulez
Friday 30th September 2011 - Sunday 2nd October 2011
Gillian Moore wrote in a recent Guardian article that "[Pli selon Pli] is not music to do the ironing to". By and large, I do agree, except that when I first listened to the Christine Schäfer recording, I was doing some serious packing or unpacking at school. That was not the ideal situation to be listening to Pli selon Pli, but as I was making cardboard boxes fold by fold, I was completely captivated by the beguiling soundworld of one of the Improvisations. When the last chord struck I stood there absolutely stunned, by the sheer power and the sense of completion. It was love at first sight.
I had only just discovered an interest in contemporary classical music at that time with very little knowledge in anything. It was taken completely at face value, but even so the beauty of the piece is just so astonishing. Since then, I have been an advocate of Pierre Boulez's music, getting my friends of different levels of musical education or aesthetics to try out, at least, on the more direct works, such as sur Incises or ... explosante-fixe ... . I told them that in the same way you don't need to understand the harmonic language of Debussy to be able to enjoy Image, you don't need to know about pitch multiplication or whatnot to enjoy a piece such as Pli selon Pli. There are different levels of appreciation but in any case the end result is a marvel no matter how you look at it. One just needs to be open-minded - less expectation, more acceptance. I have since converted a number of friends, and I am so glad.
That was perhaps one of the bigger goals of this three-day survey of Boulez's music, curated so wonderfully by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Gillian Moore and the Southbank Centre - to explore, and bring awareness to, the beauty of the compositions by Boulez, to do justice to the music and tell the general audience that this is not music with all brains and no heart but something the open ears can sit down and simply enjoy. There was a one-day study day for the academic minds, but otherwise the compositions were very well explained in the pre-concert talks or the illustrations Aimard provided before each pieces he or Tamara Stefanovich performed.
Saturday 1st October 2011
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London
Pierre Boulez in conversation with Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Pierre Boulez Anthèmes 2
Pierre Boulez ... explosante-fixe ...
Michael Cox flute
Clio Gould violin
Sound Intermedia sound projection
Carlo Laurenzi IRCAM computer production
Jérémie Henrot IRCAM sound engineer
Péter Eötvös conductor
I couldn't make it to Friday's concert, which was a real shame.The second day of the Boulez festival consisted of a one-day study day and an evening concert focusing on two works with live electronics, but before that the audience was treated with a conversation between the man that is Boulez himself and the festival director Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Boulez was greeted by the audience with a thunderous welcome. He was recovering from a cold but was fiery as usual (he looked/sounded like he was on much better form than when he was in the Paris performance of Pli selon Pli earlier). In mere 20 minutes or so, he commented on everything from how electronics are used to build a polyphonic environment regarding the night's works, to expansions of compositional ideas as he is known for, to the importance of poetry - the words - in constructing Pli selon Pli (there is also an interesting discussion in the liner notes of the 2000 recording) and how Boulez the conductor effectively "destroyed" Boulez the composer (his own words). Whilst discussing Anthèmes 2, he also dropped the hint of wanting to explore the connections between the solo violin line and an orchestra. I think everyone has been expecting a big premiere. For some 20 years maybe.
The first piece of the night was Anthèmes 2. It was an expansion from the solo violin piece Anthèmes 1, which was written for a violin competition exploring, and challenging the performer to create, different timbres of the instrument using various techniques. In Anthèmes 2 the solo violin line was performed live, then amplified and echoed (in original form or otherwise) to create a complex texture and sonic experience. The first bout of virtuosity was performed by the helper who set up the score for Anthèmes 2 - across nine music stands if I remember correctly - for which he also received an applause. Clio Gould's virtuosity was unquestionably astonishing. I was, however, not convinced by the realisation of the fragmentary piece. I sat at the back stalls of QEH. Either the electronic effects did not come through well enough or that this composition, despite being cutting edge at the time, is significantly dated in 2011, the effects and results sounded almost too cliché. Compositional rigour notwithstanding, some hip IDM have probably achieved more curious electronic effects nowadays. I struggle to see Anthèmes 2 being able to stand the test of time, but in terms of the evolution of a wondrous individual, it is a curious work.
Following Anthèmes 2 was ... explosante-fixe ..., which is effectively a triple flute concerto with expanded chamber orchestra and live electronics. The original version was written in 1971 as a memorial for Stravinsky but was reworked in the early 90s into the current form. How does a fixed-explosion sound like? Or how can we make something inherently dynamic static? The result is a large block of small blocks of sound in constant dialogues, mutually separated by the "echoes" of explosions which are the electronic re-entry. Practically the entire orchestra is relentless and ceaseless throughout and one could see the face of the oboist going bright red (could just be the light but I didn't think so) This work can be polarising. If one enjoys constant blocks of varying sonic excitement, then this work is a 35-minute thrill-ride, but those who are after a more refined large-scale form ... explosante-fixe ... can be too tiring for the mind. I belong to the latter group, but the sonic experience of hearing this live was amazing. The electronics came through alright. It might just be where I sat.
Sunday 2nd October 2011
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London
Pierre Boulez Notations
Pierre Boulez Piano Sonata No. 1
Pierre Boulez Piano Sonata No. 2*
Pierre Boulez Piano Sonata No. 3
Pierre Boulez Incises*
Pierre Boulez une page d'éphéméride
Pierre Boulez Structures II
Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano
Tamara Stefanovich piano*
Last day of the Boulez Festival, and what a day. The first part was an afternoon of almost all of Boulez's output for the piano in three concerts, back to back. A "marathon" indeed, as Aimard himself put it, to the performers and audience alike. Too add an extra dimension to the extraordinary event, Aimard discussed the compositions in detail prior to the performances of each piece, which was incredibly useful to those who are less familiar with the works (and even if one has studied to scores it's great to hear a authoritative second opinion!). In the cases of Piano Sonata No. 3 and Structures II, he talked for as long as twenty minutes. It is not hard to see why the piano works are so important in accessing Boulez's music - in one sitting the audience gets to experience almost all of the compositional forms of the composer, starting from the strictly structured Notations to the customary-decided (controlled chance) Piano Sonata No. 3 and Structures II and the timbre-explorations of latter piano works such as Incises and une page d'éphéméride.
The Notations are 12 miniature pieces written by the young Boulez (five of which have been expanded into some astonishing orchestral pieces, see No. 2 here). Aimard played them as if doing elementary fingering exercises, breezing through the nasty jumps of VI and nuanced VIII. More importantly, the music came through as being oddly but strongly passionate, as definitely in the cases of IX and XII. The performance actually transcended the pieces into fine aesthetic entities than just mere rigorous compositional exercise in serialism. It was a good start.
The First Piano Sonata is a concise work, contrasting a scintillating first movement with a manic-driven, schizophrenic second. It was performed, again, with total conviction, with the "Rapide" section of the second movement sounding almost playful in character. The work is one powerful unity with perfect duration. If I do FRSM one day I must learn it. Then, Stefanovich took over to tackle what Aimard called "the Himalayas for pianists" (it's more like Mars for most people). After all these years I still find it difficult to come to terms with the Second Piano Sonata (as a listener of course). In the Fast - (Slow - Scherzo) - Fugue form, it is viewed as a deconstruction of Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata. Listening to the work is a challenge in itself, as one can easily get lost in the structure if one tries to follow the motives and the cells of notes which Aimard explained. I want to know how many people actually managed to follow the double fugue without analysing the score to bits before. I didn't. On a tangential note, it was curious to see Stefanovich managed to turn all the pages herself without needing a page-turner, yet still kept the pace of the complex work. Perfect pianism in every way.
The Third Piano Sonata, or the bits which are publicly available at the moment, is a weird work. Not only because of the fact that the player can choose the order of playing the work, but also that without knowing 3/5 of the work it's difficult to grasp how it is a sonata in the conventional sense, but if one just considers the word "sonata" etymologically, we can perhaps take in each "formant" as a sonic experience separately. Then again, if the piece is to be performed in the manner dictated by the performer, there is no way the audience can expect anything, so one might as well sit back and feel the music, rather than think about the music. This is how I listen to most contemporary jazz. Formant 3 is published as "Constellation-Miroir", which is the retrograde version of the original "third movement", "Constellation". I liberally took Formant 3 as a series of pointillistic sparkles over discrete resonances, which yielded a series of highly enjoyable aural excitements. Formant 2 is published as "Trope", which Aimard explained it as a piece which builds upon a primary motif which continuously develops but is concealed in various forms of embellishments. I must admit I don't really get it, nor see the appeal even at face value. I need the score.
Stefanovich returned to play the showpiece Incises, which was originally written for a piano competition in 1994, then expanded into sur Incises, which in turn influenced Boulez to rework it into a newer version in 2001. sur Incises was written for Paul Sacher's birthday and thus the piece builds around a series of "Sacher chords" and their various transpositions and inversions. The piece starts with a 6-part introductory section exploring different timbres of the piano, which is followed by a toccata section, focusing on different modes of attack of repeated notes and further on, the piece explores the resonance of the piano with different pedaling techniques. It is a highly demanding piece and Stefanovich pulled it off well, except I find that the dynamic contrast is a bit limited. Then the "little encore" une page d'éphéméride is a very recent work by Boulez and it is his contribution to an album published by Universal Edition called Piano Project which aims to introduce contemporary music languages to young piano learners. It is a quintessential Boulez work with contrasting toccata-like figures and resonating sections in very concentrated dose. The work is admittedly easier than everything else Boulez has written, but it is no way a work for children. I don't think a lot of children these days can read through a page of glossary explaining all the musical instructions. If they do, they will probably opt for an Enescu sonata instead.
Onwards to the last stretch of the marathon and it was Structures II for two pianos. Whilst Structures I was famous for the application of total serialism, the extension of the idea is a surprisingly free work. Too free, some might argue, as it is a piece which asks the two pianists to converse with one another, using hand gestures to signal the entry of the other pianist to join in for music-making using composed material. There are some stunning virtuosity from Stefanovich in particular, whose part has two massive cadenzas, one at the top register of the keyboard and the other at the bottom. But I don't think I walked away from the performance completely convinced by the piece conceptually. With a setup like this, it is inevitable to compare it to, say, jazz, which actually creates some more interesting music, harmonically, emotionally and whatnot. I am not a hard-line "controlled chance" advocate and I genuinely believe that Boulez had written better music at that time (Le Marteau, for one).
Sunday 2nd October 2011
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London
Pierre Boulez Pli selon Pli
Barbara Hannigan soprano
Lucerne Festival Academy Ensemble
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Pierre Boulez conductor
Before the concert, there was a talk between Gillian Moore and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, which turned out to be a lecture in itself, in music-making and arts administration, spanning over 45 minutes. It was revealed that this project was initiated after the Messiaen festival in 2008. sur Incises and Dérive 2 were performed back then, so the remaining big piece to be considered was Répons (it's a piece for six soloists surrounding the audience with live electronics looping the sounds around the hall). But due to logistic reasons - that they either have to refloor RFH completely or use public money to hire a private external venue at much-inflated cost - the piece cannot be staged, which was a real shame. Aimard also mentioned that they omitted Structures I from the piano marathon because they are practically too hard and mentally too taxing for what had already been a gigantic afternoon anyway (coming from Aimard I am very much convinced). The audience also got a straight "No" from him that Boulez is going write an opera for Waiting for Godot, but no mention about Anthèmes 3. An audience member asked "on the scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate Boulez's sense of humour", to which Aimard said "9.5". The person, not the music, he insisted later. It was fascinating to observe that, despite what one has been reading about Boulez in the mainstream media, that he is a musical tyrant and whatever, there was a great sense of warmth, anticipation and eagerness from the audience to hear more of and about Boulez's music. It might be a Boulez love-fest, but it certain was encouraging to see.
So finally. The big moment. I sat right in front of Gillian Moore and George Benjamin. A couple of gentlemen next to me, showing total dedication, brought the scores along with them. Yes, all five movements. I wonder how long he saved up for. Anyway.
The soprano Barbara Hannigan and the man himself entered the stage to thunderous applause. Here we go, the moment I had been dreaming for years. Pli selon Pli, one of my favourite works of all time, conducted by Boulez himself live. The 46-part chord hit, BANG, and off we went to a 70-minute journey.
Pli selon Pli is a work which is itself developed fold by fold over the years. It appears to have reached its final form now but one can never be sure. It is scored for solo soprano and a large orchestra emphasising the percussion section at the back. Three harps, a celesta and a piano take centre stage, with amplified guitar and mandolin next to them, to the right. The strings take the left, winds and brass, mostly muted, take the right. If you look at the instrumentation, one might immediately associate it with the Messiaen who wrote Sept Haïkaï and Oiseaux Exotiques and indeed, a majority of the percussion-fest throughout Pli selon Pli does remind the audience of the wild bird songs in the latter work. This line-up also guarantees a quintessential Boulez work with a series of crystalline fast and furious percussive elements over sustained resonating foundation elements, ideas which would be exploited significantly in the later masterpiece sur Incises for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists. It is a lyrical work - yes, lyrical. Perhaps not in the sense that a postman can hum during delivery, but it certainly has a very obvious melodic element. The work itself is built upon the sonnets of the poet Stéphane Mallarmé and as Boulez explained it yesterday, the words are important in the construction of the large-scale form of the piece. In five movements, it effectively gives a portrait of the life of Mallarmé, with life beginning and ending on the same chord, bringing the work to a cycle.
Hannigan's performance was absolutely outstanding throughout - impeccable techniques, singing with total devotion and conviction, dramatic, beguiling and, it has to be said, mesmerizing. Every instantaneous moment was a priceless jewel of incomparable beauty. It was not just the stunning delivery from the soloist, but also the captivating harmonic environment of the piece which makes the work unexpectedly sensuous. (I found myself having to look over my neighbour's shoulders on a number of occasions to have a glance at several chords. There was a special moment after the celesta solo in Improvisation sur Mallarmé III which I just needed to know immediately). The flautist Sophie Cherrier was also phenomenal, piercing through the entire percussion set-up with her strong but warm tone to bring the flute to the fore, adding an extra lyrical dimension.
70-minute breezed through as one sank into the rich and ever-expanding soundworld of Pli selon Pli. But as with life (of an artist) that the work portraits, the end of the piece is inevitable. Gillian Moore was right, when I heard the unison motives towards the end of Tombeau, those which are as though signaling the forthcoming of death, my eyes welled up completely. I knew the end was coming and this could be the last time I would ever experience this soundscape ever again. As Hannigan whispered "mort" (death in French), and the work concluded to the big bang which started the work. For a good minute or two, I could not speak, neither could some audience members around me. Straight standing ovation to the performers, to the stunning performance of Barbara Hannigan and to the legendary man, the composer, conductor, educator, music commentator, thinker who has single-handedly determined the direction of much of today's music. The last chord concluded the work about a lifetime, but also concluded the concert of a lifetime, and a successful celebration of a legendary career. This is the single most memorable concert I have been to, a life-changing experience in itself. I hope for many more to come, of course, but this single concert realised my dream for a very long time.
