Customer Reviews

Boulez: Notations; Structures; ...explosante-fixe...

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This Deutsche Grammophon disc contains three pieces by the great French composer, conductor, and theorist. The first two pieces are writen for piano, "Notations" is performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and on "Structures pour deux pianos, Livre II" Aimard is accompanied by Florent Boffard. The third, "...explosante-fixe..." is for solo MIDI flute (Sophier Cherrier), two flutes (Emmanuelle Orphele and Pierre-Andre Valade), electronics, and orchestra, here the Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted by Boulez himself. It should be notated that the recording was re-released in 2005 in the "Echo 20/21" series for the composer's 80th birthday, and if artwork and packaging matter to you, the new edition may be preferable to the original 1996 disc.

"Notations" (1945) is a series of twelve piano miniatures written in the very early days of Boulez's career and is fact the earliest piece he has published. Initially neglected after their composition, two Notations (5 and 9) were quietly used in "Pli selon pli", and then the work was fully uncovered in 1970s, when the composer embarked on orchestrating them. While the orchestral versions--much longer and of course with a greater range of colour--are impressive, the original piano Notations are a delight as well. Each consists only of twelve measures, featuring a twelve-tone row in much the same fashion as the work of Anton Webern. In spite of certain formal commonalities, however, the pieces widely range from free (e.g. 1) to tightly rhythmic (4, 6), contemplative (3) to frenetic (2). If you like Gyorgy Ligeti's "Musica Ricercata", you'll find this quite enjoyable. Aimard's performance here is so confident and poised, the man is a titan of contemporary piano repertoire.

"Structures, Livre II" (1956-61) shows that a decade later Boulez had come out from Webern's shadow and was expanding serialism with original contributions. Boulez had caught John Cage's fascination with musical chance operations, and so much of the material is left to the discretion of the performer (a feature shared by his Piano Sonata No. 3 of the same era). What is obligatory, however, is rigidly notated; the piece features serialisation of all elements, rhythm and dynamics too, not just pitch. Boulez even specifies the exact height of the pedal. Thus, the work is a strange combination of freedom and severity. This is not Boulez at his most accessible: the music of the two pianos is interrelated, but in not so charming a fashion as Stockhausen acheived in his "Gruppen" for three orchestras. For a more entertaining example of Boulez's thought during the mid-1950s, I'd recommend the piano sonata.

"...explosante-fixe..." (1991-93), taking its title from a line in Andre Breton's NADJA, was first conceived in the early 1970s when Boulez oversaw the founding of IRCAM and was interested in how cooperation between electronic technicians and composers might serve music. However, the state of the technology didn't satisfy Boulez at the time, and the work was finally presented anew twenty years later. In this piece, one of Boulez's most eerie and colourful, the concerto concept is vastly expanded through electronics: one MIDI flute performs great feats of sound high above the capabilities of the other instruments, while two normal flutes double its acrobatics in imperfect imitation and an orchestra fills out the sound. The work has an elegant formal scheme: it begins with two "transitory" sections derived from elementary material, and the elementary material is finally presented at the end, so that the piece seems to go from a wide cloud to a point. In between, there are two electronic interstitial passages. Yet, this piece requires no real formal understanding of musicology, it just sounds great. The early wall of sound gives way to, as it is often describes, a house-of-mirrors, which in turn leads to a liberation of all elements with thundering percussion and roaring violin, and the final "Originel" is shy and innocent, As usual, the Ensemble Intercontemporain give a flawless performance and show themselves as the premier interpreters of Boulez's work.

All in all, "...explosante-fixe..." is certainly the most accessible piece Boulez has written and so this disc a fine introduction to his soundworld. Established fans will love this reading of the piano pieces.

Explosante-Fixe was one of the first work Boulez engaged with the computer assisted musical structures and regular instruments at IRCAM ,the new music mecca somewhere in the bowels of Paris. Of his generation Boulez regardless of the engagement of an intellectual agenda for music always imparts his deep sensual feel to his works. He certainly learned much from Debussy. This work concerns the brokeness of chords the arpeggiated sound. There is more than one version and Boulez is the incessant re-negotiator of his work, always rethinking,revising, it points to the values of the postmodernist epoch, which I guess has run its course. The Notations for piano here is a waste of time,perhaps a vanity, Maitre Boulez should record the subsequent realizations for orchestra. That work has a dramatic power a deep labyrinth of sound and timbre exploiting the full colours of the modernist orchestra. I know Barenboim did them with Chicago, now a committed instrument to the Boulezian cause,coming from the deeply Germanic of the Solti years. But these piano pieces are like young budding sketches,pointillistic, engaged with the full register of the piano's roaring and stridently bright sonorities. It is like the seeds archeologist have found in Egyptian tombs, when planted some centuries later,still bore fruit. Needless to say the ghost of Meesiaen appears here in the piano solo hovering above. The Structures is the laboritorio of the piano,coldly conceived,brutal,uncompromising and rugged, and from a fascinating perspective is like an electric music thinker's realization for the two pianos. You actually cannot distinguish where one begins and the other trails into it. This work is pure expressionism, yet gently poetic and evocative. The fact that this work still elicits negative responses points to its avant-gardism, its ability to shock and subvert, change and challenge the confines of the classical canon

"...explosante-fixe..." is the highlight of this disc, without question the most powerful of all of Boulez's compositions. For me, this is the reward for persevering through several of his less compelling pieces until finally hearing it! (This is the original release -- it was reissued in the DG 20/21 Echo series in 2005, the year of Boulez's 80th birthday.)

I was confused as to its place in the Boulez chronology. Here's why --"explosante," an open-ended work, was apparently the first composition Boulez worked on at IRCAM in the early 1970s. In the form presented here, though, "explosante" was finalized a decade after "Repons," which was finalized in 1984, but "explosante" was recorded first, in 1994, while "Repons" wasn't recorded and released on disc until 1998. Clear now?

I have to say I am underwhelmed by Repons (see my review), but "...explosante-fixe..." marks a tremendous advance over the earlier work. While "Repons" is shimmery and Debussian, "explosante" is quite forceful, coming closer to sounding like Xenakis than anything else Boulez has done. An electro-acoustic work featuring the midi flute of Sophie Cherrier along with two more flutes and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the form is three instrumental movements separated by two electronic interludes (interstitiel). It's ironic, perhaps, that when Boulez decides to let fly with his most powerful work he does it with a flute piece, but this is no ordinary flute -- the electronic amplification makes it possible for Cherrier to cut through even the densest of passages. The IRCAM technology is utilized to its fullest.

The two piano pieces are quite fine as well. "Notations," Boulez's earliest composition, sounds very much like Schoenberg and Webern, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs them fantastically. "Structures II" is tougher (though not as tough as the Piano Sonata No. 2 -- check out Pollini's ferocious recording for instance), a duo played by Aimard and Florent Boffard, but on this disc it is a perfect segue from the introverted "Notations" to the wild energy of "explosante."

...explosante-fixe... is Boulez's masterpiece. Like many of his works since the late 1950s (beginning with works like Structures Book II [also on this disk] and Pli selon pli), Boulez focuses on a central collection of pitches and explores these in various colorations and permutations. This is a technique, then, not unlike what one finds in Berio or Messiaen. The result is that ...explosante-fixe... is also one of Boulez's most accessible works.

It's also one of his most moving. It's well known that _Originel_ with which the piece closes doubles as Boulez's _Memoriale_, a piece written in memory of the flautist Laurence Beauregard. Yet even setting this association aside, one finds that, after immersing oneself in the 30 minutes that lead up to _Originel_, the last seven or eight minutes are among perhaps the most moving moments in the music of the last half of the twentieth century.

And the best thing is Boulez does it all without selling out!

El Sr. Boulez en este disco de tres de sus propias obras nos deja con sabor a poco. Esta es música de laboratorio, inexpresiva.

En ...explosante-fixe... le recomiendo que baje el volumen, puesto que es media hora de agudicimos que pueden llegar a resentir el oído, y la verdad no vale la pena. Las obras para piano Notations y Structures, son mucho mejores, por ellas lo de tres estrellas. Aclaro que soy un apasionado por la música del Siglo XX, pero lastimosamente el Sr. Boulez como compositor no me dice mucho.