Boulez: Sur Incises/Messagesquisse/Anthèms 2

Pierre Boulez (Composer), Pierre Boulez (Conductor), Members of the Ensemble InterContemporain (Performer), Soloists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain (Performer), Ensemble de violoncelles (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Members of the Ensemble InterContemporain, Soloists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble de violoncelles
• Conductor: Pierre Boulez
• Composer: Pierre Boulez
• Audio CD (October 10, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B00004XPU4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #227,739 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

To see the future of classical music, just look to the projects of Pierre Boulez. Whether conducting Bruckner, Mahler, or one of his own compositions, he continues to surprise, embellish, and reinvent the shape of music today. Sur Incises gathers three Boulez works that each focus, at least in part, on a singular instrument. The world-premiere title track uses three pianos, three harps, and three percussionists to create a dense, atonal, but very pianistic universe of sound. On repeated listenings, the abstract piece becomes more rewarding; you eventually pick up on Boulez's keen eye for tonal colors and shadings. On Anthemes 2, the piercing sounds of Hai-Sun Kang's violin are sampled, manipulated, and relayed back to her via electronics. Here, you won't find the lush Impressionism that Boulez hints at with Sur Incises, but you will find a fascinating interplay between organic and synthetic sounds. Messagesquisse for six cellos achieves similar results; the solo cello of Jean-Guihen Queyras is echoed and hinted at by five other cellists. As on their acclaimed recording of the composer's Répons, the Ensemble InterContemporain sets a high standard for these works, and DG does an excellent job with the recorded sound. These pieces may lack some of the musical magic of Repons, but they're no less fascinating. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beyond comparison, June 22, 2002

By 

"frussianophile" (in some arabian wind) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boulez: Sur Incises/Messagesquisse/Anthèms 2 (Audio CD)

I am willing to wager that when all the books are written on music in the late twentieth-early twenty-fisrt century, that the name of Pierre Boulez will rise far higher than his more famous (at the time being) contemporaries.

Boulez is an interpreter extrordinaire. His Debussy, Schoenberg, Messiaen, and Webern are among the best. And though many are apparently too deaf to hear it, his Mahler is a thing of greatness (just listen to the sixth).

As a composer Boulez is perhaps even more formidable. Repons, though influenced by Webern and Messiaen takes music to a whole new level.

The variety of Boulez' work is vast. Pli Selon Pli is the best piece of vocal writing since Mahler walked the earth. Eclat/Multiples ranks with the best works of Ravel and Debussy.

Yet Sur Incises is Boulez crowning achievement (so far). I cannot begin to fathom the kind of driving genius it takes to mould pieces like those included here. This is music like it was meant to be.

I give no comparison here...only recommendation. Get this disc.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three recent works that show that Boulez can engage and thrill, June 5, 2006

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Boulez: Sur Incises/Messagesquisse/Anthèms 2 (Audio CD)

This Deutsche Grammaphon disc, part of the "20/21" series of contemporary music recordings, contains three pieces by Pierre Boulez from the last quarter of the 20th century. Boulez's recent expansions of his venerable pieces from the 1950s ("Le Marteu Sans Maitre") and 1960s ("Pli Selon Pli") are increasingly overlong and plodding, but from this disc it's clear that the fresh pieces he's written lately are full of great energy and momentum, alongside the gorgeous warmth of mid-frequency sounds that has always been a hallmark of Boulez's art. This music uses all twelve tones, but it is never "dissonant", its formal scheme may be too complicated for some to grasp completely, but it's never noisy.

"Sur Incises" (1996/1998) for three pianos, three harps, and three percussion instruments is a two-movement expansion of Boulez's earlier "Incises" for solo piano. He had considered writing a piano concerto, but was frustrated that most of the orchestra can't match the piano's speed. So, in a nod to Stravinsky's "Les Noces", he added two more pianos, and brought in instruments which can mirror certain qualities of the piano. The form of the music consists of alternating tempos, one slow and meditative where one instrument often takes a spotlight while others accompany, the other wild and energetic where all nine instruments compete virgourously. "Sur Incises" requires great virtuosity, and is surely one of the most challenging pieces of contemporary music. The soloists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain handle it flawlessly. All in all, a fantastic piece. No wonder it won the Grawemeyer Award in 2001. I should mention that if you really dig "Sur Incises", there's a recent DVD in the Juxtapositions series that contains a very layman-friendly lecture by Boulez on the piece, as well as a complete performance by the same soloists as here.

"Messagequisse" for seven cellos (1977) dates from two decades before either of the other two pieces on this disc, but fits in very well here. Written for a solo cello backed up with a small cello ensemble, the piece begins with a slow mournful melody played on the primary cello with pizzicato accompaniment by the others. A very furiously bowed section follows, a contrast with much the same effect as in "Sur Incises". My only complaint is that it's a short piece, and it's really over before one has much time to come to grips with its intriguing soundworld. The following "Anthemes 2" for violin and electronics (1997) is much longer, an electronic expansion of a work originalyl for violin solo. In much the same way as Nono's "La lontanza...", here we have a violinist played against himself, and the direct "realness" of the living soloist stands in eerie opposition to the electronic sound. There's no ultimate form here, rather the work consists of a series of brief episodes, but each new exploration follows the last in a harmonious manner. For some reason, I'm especially tempted to compare this work to Unsuk Chin's "Xi" for electronics, but there's a much more human touch.

Along with the wild flute concerto "...explosante-fixe...", available on another DG disc, the material here makes for a great introduction to Boulez. If you've heard that he's only a snobbish intellectual who doesn't understand the concept of fun, these pieces will quickly show you that his art is entirely in tune with a desire to rock out.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars glamourous stuff....like models walking down the catwalk, May 12, 2006

By 

Peter Heddon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boulez: Sur Incises/Messagesquisse/Anthèms 2 (Audio CD)

'sur incises' is a colouristic tour de force:twangy harps adding bite to the numerous toccata passages and unearthly steel drums amid the dying resonances of piano chords:it's all glamorous stuff,springing from the highly ornamented tradtion of french music (couperin)mixed with impressionism and the cooler waters of Webern for the final twist.Boulez once derided Shostakovich as being like a third pressing of Mahler and i kind of know where he's coming from when listening to this disc of his own work (it takes one to know one!)
Still,there's plenty to enjoy here though i prefer the works from the 60's when the rhythmical language was less straightjacketed and formally irregular.