It is hard to imagine the post-war classical music world without Pierre Boulez. Boulez the composer is a radical exponent of integral composition in the dodecaphonic language of serialism. Boulez the conductor shuns the mantle of interpreter in favor of urtext-caliber precision. Boulez the critic has little time for those who are not advancing the musical art. Whatever his role, Boulez is equally uncompromising.
Whereas such a polarized stance would alienate most artists from the record industry, Boulez's strong convictions and peerless artistry have paid dividends, among them an astonishing 24 Grammys, beginning with his 1967 recording of Alban Berg's 12-tone opera Wozzeck, which captured both the Best Opera Recording and classical Album of the Year awards. Indeed, a quick glance down Boulez's trophy case reveals that all of his awards have been for works that are rather challenging to the listener. His confr?res Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, though indisputably innovative in harmony, structure and orchestration, appear quite conservative when placed shoulder-to-shoulder with Bela Bart"k, Alban Berg, Igor Stravinsky, and yes, Boulez himself.
Deutsche Grammophon's 20/21 series of recordings focuses on seminal works of the post-war avant-garde, and has accordingly yielded two discs of Boulez's work to date: Rpons (1998) and Sur Incises (2000) - also worth hearing is Boulez Conducts Boulez (1995) which predates the 20/21 series on Deutsche Grammophon. Both boast flawless production and the bermenschlich virtuosity of the Ensemble Intercontemporain and its soloists. And while neither disc makes for added atmosphere in the midst of a candle-lit dinner, each is certainly accessible to the uninitiated listener.
"Rpons," like "Messagesquisse" from the second disc, is constructed from the name of Paul Sacher, founder and conductor of the Basle Chamber Orchestra and, like Boulez, a leading champion of new music - Sacher translates musically as E flat, A, C, B natural, E, D in the key of C. The soloists are juxtaposed with a 24-instrument ensemble, with the soloists subjected to real-time electronic transformation courtesy of IRCAM's Andrew Gerzso - IRCAM, or Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique, was founded by Boulez at the insistence of Georges Pompidou in 1970 to explore the frontiers of electronic music. The work was first presented in 1972 and revised substantially in 1982 and 1984, when it took approximately the form preserved here on disc. It is only appropriate that Boulez's pieces should be works in progress - even his own work does not evade his critical dissection.
The solo clarinet shadow-play "Dialogue de L'ombre Double" provides an effective contrast to the dense and complex "Rpons." Alain Damiens's clarinet converses with a pre-recorded counterpart, while computers reflect the shadowy manifestations and their transformations from all walls of the projection space. Dedicated to Luciano Berio, the piece would not seem out of place in Berio's Sequenza series. electronics aside, few composers are capable of such an epic sweep when writing for a solo instrument.
Continuing with the notion of a soloist augmented by an ensemble or electronics, "Sur Incises" is an extrapolation of a solo piano piece. An ensemble of percussion and harps underlines, magnifies and distorts the energetic counterpoint of the pianos, creating a hyper-piano reminiscent of Stockhausen's ring-modulated piano duet Mantra (1970) or John Cage's prepared piano experiments of the 1930s and 1940s.
"Messagesquisse" similarly employs an ensemble to sing in unison and occasional harmony with the solo cello. The piece consists of two free intervals alternating with a moto perpetuo of lightning speed. The cello ensemble is alternately a textural background or unison coconspirator; in rare instances the accompanying ensemble deviates from the unifying melody line by a major or minor second"another acoustic realization of the ring-modulator effect.
The final piece, "Anthmes 2" for solo violin and electronics, showcases Boulez's equal comfort with the ideas lointain and espac. Nimble lines hover like smokescreens in the air; Hae-Sung Kung's live performance melts seamlessly into Andrew Gerzso's electronic landscapes.
Of course, with Boulez, each of these pieces is susceptible to further reinvention and reconceptualization as his musical language enters new iterations of formalization and refinement. However, as he subjects each piece to a more rigorous standard, he proves again and again that he is a true artist in the Sch?nbergian sense, an artist who achieves beauty without willing it, because he is only searching for truthfulness.
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