Customer Reviews

Le Domaine Musical Volume 1/Var

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The formation of Le Domaine Musical arose from the need to establish a concert society of progressive music within a culturally degenerative, post-WW2 France. Le Domaine Musical became mostly focused on performances of music from the Second Viennese School, many of which received their French premieres here and some even recorded contemporaneously Le Domaine Musical Volume 2/Var (Fra) (Dig). The group's future historical importance lay more significantly in the performances of compositions by younger composers with the newer aesthetic ideals.

Due to the hostility in France towards the New Vienna School it must be regarded as a courageous move on the part of Boulez and his supporters (with their limited financial means) to promote their own idealistic works in a newly created public forum. In 1953, it was Boulez who was the principal guiding force behind the programming and initial concept as well as the emphasis on works emanating from the Second Viennese School which constituted close to half of the 360 works played at Le Domaine during those first seasons under Boulez's direction. Having served his apprenticeship under Messiaen, Boulez's own music was already leaving serialism behind although the influence of Messiaen on musicians continued to be felt not only through the Mode de valeurs et d'intensites, Chronochromie or Livre d'orgue (which Messiaen himself performed during the 1955 Domaine season) but in other works Messiaen composed specifically for the Domaine concerts that are included in the present release. Boulez seems to have been touched by Messiaen's curiosity, his generosity, and that contrary to his generation's conservatism it was Messiaen who led younger composers - including Boulez - to modernity. Messiaen's wife from 1961, pianist Yvonne Loriod (dedicatee of Vingt Regards and Visions de l'Amen) also had a unique empathy towards all of this music including Boulez's Second Piano Sonata which is wonderfully realized here. She seems to grasp how Boulez's music is reflective of the Post-War tensions of the time and also his absorption of contemporary art and literature (Artaud) which lends her playing an appropriate attitude not always heard.

The Domaine's inaugural concert took place in January 1954 at the Petit Theatre Marigny under conductor Herman Scherchen and the original recordings issued of music from various concerts (of which there were 4-6 annually) were released on the Vega and Ades labels. Other composers whose works were represented in subsequent seasons included Stockhausen, Varese, Nono, Berio, Pousseur, Henze, Kagel, Maderna, Penderecki, Barraque, Ligeti, Xenakis and others.

These concerts set new standards of performance technique and score interpretation in radical new works such as Boulez's Le Marteau sans maitre, Structures Book 1 (played by the Kontarskys), the Second Piano Sonata, Stockhausen's Klavierstucke (No.6 here played by David Tudor) and Kontra-Punkte Op.1 (premiered at the inaugural concert) - all now Classics of the 20th Century repertoire if still underplayed today by the majority of Conservatory faculty and students who continue to seek glory through the 19th Century repertoire. What we need are more performers who faithfully commit themselves to advance a musical language relevant to the 21st Century! Other performers of Le Domaine whose agenda lent performers a greater dignity included pianists Claude Helffer, Paul Jacobs and Marcelle Mercenier, the Kontarskys, in addition to David Tudor and Yvonne Loriod, flutist Severino Gazzeloni, conductors Hermann Scherchen, Rudolf Albert, Hans Rosbaud, and Gilbert Amy (who succeeded Boulez as Le Domaine's director in 1967). Boulez himself cut his teeth as a conductor at this time which laid the foundations for his later work with the BBC Symphony, the NY Philharmonic and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. In turn, each of these groups under his leadership was able to offer first-rate performances of the new music, achieving an unprecedented consistency and transparency. Boulez (now 82 years old at this writing) suggests in the notes that the emphasis was on exactitude to these complex scores and that the performances of Le Domaine were subject to a Stravinskyan objectivity in conception and gesture that only later gave way to more flexibility in interpretive details.

The first of 2 volumes dedicated to the Domaine comprises 4 CDs by a variety of composers and performers from 1956-1967 and a bonus CD with the 1956 premiere recording of "Le marteau sans maitre" and a 2005 50 minute interview in French with Boulez on the history of Le Domaine Musical (a translation in English is thankfully included as a separate booklet). Some of the original cover art by Miro and Andre Masson is reproduced in the booklet and the photos of Boulez, Messiaen, Tezenas, Stockhausen, and Souvtchinsky are also very collectible.

Here is a breakdown of the contents of Vol.1

CD1 Stockhausen Kontra-Punkte Op.1
Berio Serenata 1
Boulez Le Marteau sans maitre
Messiaen Oiseaux exotiques

CD2 Debussy Syrinx
Varese Density 21,5; Hyperprism; Octandre; Integrales
Messiaen Canteyodjaya; Sept Haikai

CD3 Boulez Structures Livre 1 (Bk.2 also with Boulez/ Loriod on a Col Legno CD)
Sonatine for flute and piano
Piano Sonata No.2

CD4 Kagel Sextuor a cordes
Nono Incontri
Henze Concerto per il Marigny
Pousseur Madrigal 3; Mobile
Stockhausen Zeitmasse; Klavierstuck 6

The legacy left by Le Domaine Musical made it possible for future groups such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain to be funded as equally as the state orchestras and to expand the instrumental base to include electronic music. This small body of dedicated people operated under great strength of conviction and were willing to take risks at their own expense, the benefits of which the current music scene has mostly overlooked. Paris today however, compared to where it was in the early 1950s is at the forefront of the avante-garde due in no small part to the belief and actions of Le Domaine Musical. So then, enjoy this souvenir!