Customer Reviews

Pli Selon Pli

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yes, so one's idea of a masterpiece is not someone else's idea. Nevertheless, I can't refrain myself, especially since Boulez is often depicted as all brain and no heart. How wrong! OK, so I haven't sat down with the score to do a row analysis of "Pli Selon Pli" -- but knowing Boulez's serial procedures, that might be rather impossible. But when I listen to it, I don't think of all the row forms and permutations (though I do notice a few), but rather the grand sweep, the narrative, the variety of colours and textures, the exquisite vocal writing, and most of all, the sheer beauty of this work. And yes, I did say BEAUTY! This, the Second Piano Sonata, and "Le Visage Nuptial" are my favorite Boulez works. I urge any adventurous souls to get this CD to discover one of the most striking pieces of music from this now-quickly-passing-century.

Boulez's masterpiece is "Pli selon pli," a set of five works for varying ensembles and voice.

The texts on Mallarme are set exquisitely in the inner works using beautifully angular lines and exotic, ringing, resonant instrumentation. These is a wonderful sense of spaciousness here and Boulez lets you luxuriate in his brilliant, richly painted sound colors. Although the title might suggest dense lines of counterpoint, "Pli selon pli" (and most all of Boulez's work) is more reliant on glittering explosions of sound strung together with the resonances of those explosions connecting them. This may be one of the most beautiful pieces of European avant garde.

Boulez has revised "Pli selon pli" several times (other recordings exist on Erato and DG). Each revision has seen an expansion of the instrumentation and added a smoother sheen of sound to the original. I find this regrettable. The grit and daring of the earlier versions is lost among the filigree of the revised versions. Certainly, the revisions are masterful in their orchestration and could only be produced by a musical mind as sophisticated as that of Boulez. But get the early recordings and feel your heart race with the thrill of discovery.

Pli Selon Pli is one of the masterworks of the twentieth century, written with caution and intelligence in a time when fashion was beginning to turn against the 'modernist' aesthetic, originally incorperating ideas of chance in vogue at the moment ingeniously while not compromizing the ideals of Boulez. While the revisions of Pli Selon Pli have removed actual elements of 'chance performance' (allowing the performers flexibility in the order of sections in the form) as Boulez's vision for the piece crystalized, thus removing the representation of Mallarme's vision of 'a book that would endlessly permutate,' the solidification of form in the 3rd movement clairified Boulez's stance against chance elements he considered arbeitary, which he considered an abberation of the composer's purpose. This element reveals one aspect of Boulez's genius in Pli Selon Pli - While manifestly a portrait of the life of art, an artist (as abstractions) and Stephan Mallarme', it is also a self portrait. The secretive Boulez gives one the feel of the reality that Pli Selon Pli is at times Boulez wearing a Mallarme' mask, which is really one of the points of the work. To be engima is what is implied by the title 'a fold within a fold.' The quality of the performance and the sound quality of the recording is not immaculate, but the ensembles and recording technology available today are perks of 20 years of advancement from the time of this recording. As this is the only recording that I know of for Pli Selon Pli still available, it is a steal for the price of approximatly ten dollars, at which it is offered here.

In honor of Pierre Boulez's 80th birthday this year, I decided to check out this 1969 recording of "Pli Selon Pli." The 2001 recording on DG, with Boulez conducting his Ensemble Intercontemporain and soprano Christine Schafer, underwhelmed me (see my review), and I was intrigued by those who said they preferred this earlier version. It is very different, there's no doubt about that -- it's sharper-edged, no surprise as this has been the tendency of Boulez in general, to move toward a smoother, more homogenized sound, more Debussian, in his later years.

The soprano voice of Halina Lukomsa is completely different in character from Christine Schafer -- Lukomsa sings with lots of vibrato, a very mannered, very classical style, whereas Schafer's vocal line is smoother and more natural, blending more with the instrumental ensemble. The BBC Symphony Orchestra, led by Boulez, plays boldly, with instrumental voices clearly separated. Again, the 2001 version submerges the lines into the flow. Here, Paul Stingl on guitar and Hugo d'Alton on mandolin, who are given special billing, really jump out at you, while their counterparts on the 2001 recording are not accorded the same attention because they don't stand out nearly as much.

It's hard for me to say which version is better -- I have no doubt that Boulez is happier with the level of performance his own Ensemble brings, with much more practice, and more familiarity with his style and intentions than the BBCSO had back in 1969. But there is a bold, radical edge that is lost. One thing I am quite sure of, and that is that "Pli Selon Pli" was already too long at about an hour, but instead of tightening it up, Boulez was indulgent and added 10 minutes so that the recent recording is 70 minutes long. This earlier recording has the virtue of adding an additional piece, "Livre pour cordes," a superb 10-minute work for strings composed in 1968.

In general, I have found that all of the discs in this PIERRE BOULEZ series on Sony are excellent, and at a bargain price. Cumulatively they represent a treasure trove of the 20th century avant-garde.

A correction is in order: the Grammaphone reviewer seems to think this is a recent recording. It is a 1995 release, but it's an ADD recording dating back to 1969. This is actually a plus if you think, like I do, that Boulez's continual manipulations of his earlier works are generally not to be welcomed. You'll like Pli Selon Pli if you liked Le Marteau Sans Maitre (available now, I think, only on French import). You get more melismatic vocal lines with, again, sparse accompaniment, this time by an orchestra rather than a chamber group, as in Marteau. The Mallarme lyrics don't make much more sense than Char's do in Le Marteau, but this seems to be how Boulez prefers it, since the music remains "absolute" without clear textual reference points. For my taste, Boulez is a little too austere, a little too addicted to theories--I prefer the magic of Lutoslawski and the explosiveness of Carter.

This mid-price Sony disc contains two pieces by Pierre Boulez conducted by the composer himself. In the large "Pli selon pli", he leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra with the soprano Halina Lukomska, while in the intimate "Livre pour chords" the Strings of the New Philharmonic Orchestra perform. The recordings date from 1969 and 1968, respectively, but the sound is suprisingly clear and vast. Both of the works were unfinished at the time of recording, and have a somewhat complicated lineage.

"Pli selon pli" for soprano and orchestra is a lengthy setting of poems by Stephane Mallarme, whose idea of a work in "perpetual expansion" preoccupied Boulez for much of the 1950s. The work grew in stages. It began first with three "Improvisations sur Mallarme" for voice and small ensemble in 1958 and 1959. Then a grim end, "Tombeau" for large orchestra, was added later in 1959. Finally, in 1960 the work gained an introduction with "Don" for large orchestra, whose opening big tutti chord will sound familiar to anyone familiar with Luciano Berio's "Sinfonia" (where it's quoted in the passage "I have a present for you" *whomp*). Originally the order of many elements were left to the discretion of the conductor, a form similar to that of the Piano Sonata No. 3 and "Eclat", but Boulez ultimately fixed the parts in the order they are here.

Along with "Le Marteau Sans Maitre" of 1953-1955, "Pli selon pli" ushers out the bleep-bloops and Webern-inspired crystal sounds of early Boulez and introduces the interest in wide contrasts of timbre and the warm tones of alto range that marks all of his subsequent work. The forces of a traditional ensemble are accompanied by guitar and mandolin, and while the soprano has a decisive role, her intonations serve more as exotic instrument in the ensemble than a communicator of poetry.

Unfortunately, "Pli selon pli" is a rather unfocused work, and on its own I'd give it three stars, for certain moments drag on for far too long than they should. There are indeed moments of immense wonder here, the general exploration of the ensemble's capabilities, the soprano's wild gesticulations, and especially the grimly beautiful end, which is among Boulez's most frenetic writing. But all in all, this is not one of Boulez's best works. At least here he still conducts with a certain violence, while in his conducting of the recently revised version on a 2002 Deutsche Grammophon disc the sluggish and uninspired pace undoes the whole work. It wasn't until "Eclat" of 1965 that Boulez really joined well-paced action to these rainbow hues of sound to form the style of such great works as "Repons", "Sur Incises", and "...explosante-fixe..."

"Livre pour cordes" for string orchestra, begun in 1968, is an expansion of certain parts of his "Livre pour quatuor" string quartet. The quartet was written in 1948, around the same time as the Piano Sonata No. 2 from which it borrows material, and was quickly withdrawn. Boulez orchestrated two sections in '68, "1a Variation" and "1b Mouvement", which we hear on this recording, though it wasn't until 1989 that there was a definitive version of 1A, and there's still no clue when the whole will be complete.

"Livre pour cordes" is indeed a string quartet writ large. Boulez tries to get maximum timbre out of limited instrumentation through the contrast of pizzicato and arco, which results in a generally bubbling texture. However, the piece seems to lack direction, it's really no surprise that Boulez hasn't completed it. It remains a curiosity in his catalogue, his only piece for string orchestra (though he did write for eight cellos in "Messagesquisse" with fine results).

If you're curious about the music of Pierre Boulez, try any of his works from the last three decades. There are excellent recordings of these on Deutsche Grammophon in the "20/21" and "Echo 20/21" series. The two pieces here are of lesser interest, although this might be the best place to discover "Pli selon pli".