French composer and conductor. In March 2000, Pierre Boulez turned 75 years old. According to one sarcastic British critic, the scope of the anniversary celebrations and the tonality of the glorifications would embarrass even Wagner himself: “For an outsider it might seem that we are talking about a true savior of the musical world.” The unique timbre atmosphere of the cycle is determined by the combination of a low female voice and instruments of a close (alto) register. In some places there are
more
French composer and conductor. In March 2000, Pierre Boulez turned 75 years old. According to one sarcastic British critic, the scope of the anniversary celebrations and the tonality of the glorifications would embarrass even Wagner himself: “For an outsider it might seem that we are talking about a true savior of the musical world.” The unique timbre atmosphere of the cycle is determined by the combination of a low female voice and instruments of a close (alto) register. In some places there are exotic effects reminiscent of the sound of the traditional Indonesian gamelan (orchestra of percussion instruments), the Japanese koto string-plucking instrument, etc. Igor Stravinsky, who highly appreciated this work, compared its sound atmosphere with the ringing of ice crystals beating against the wall of a glass glass. “The Hammer” remained in history as one of the most refined, aesthetically uncompromising, exemplary scores of the heyday of the “big avant-garde”. New music, especially so-called avant-garde music, is usually blamed for the lack of melody. With regard to Boulez, such a reproach is, strictly speaking, unfair. The unique expressiveness of his melodies is determined by flexible and changeable rhythms, avoidance of symmetrical and repetitive structures, rich and sophisticated melismatics. For all the rational “construction”, the melodic lines in Boulez are not dry and lifeless, but plastic and even elegant. Boulez's melodic style, developed in opuses inspired by the bizarre poetry of René Char, was developed in Two Improvisations on Mallarm for sopranos, percussion and harp on the texts of two sonnets of the French symbolist (1957). Boulez later added a third improvisation for soprano and orchestra (1959), as well as a predominantly instrumental introductory piece, The Gift, and a large orchestral finale with the vocal code, The Tomb (both lyrics by Mallarme; 1959–1962). The resulting five-part cycle, called "Pli selon pli" (approximate translation - "folding by fold") and subtitled "Portrait of Mallarme", was first sounded in 1962. The meaning of the title in this context is something like this: the veil thrown over the portrait of the poet, slowly, fold by fold, falls off as the music unfolds. Cycle "Pli selon pli", lasting about an hour, remains the most monumental, the largest score of the composer. Contrary to the author’s preferences, I would like to call it a “vocal symphony”: it deserves this genre name, if only because it contains a developed system of musical thematic links between parts and relies on a very strong and effective dramaturgical core. As you know, the elusive atmosphere of Mallarme's poetry had an exceptional appeal for Debussy and Ravel. Paying homage to the Symbolic Impressionist aspect of the poet’s work, Boulez focused on his most amazing creation – the posthumously published unfinished Book, in which “every thought is a roll of dice” and which in general resembles a “spontaneous star placer”, that is, consists of autonomous, not ordered linearly, but internally interconnected artistic fragments. Mallarmé’s book suggested to Boulez the idea of a so-called mobile form or ‘work in progress’. The first experience of this kind in the work of Boulez was the Third Piano Sonata (1957); its sections ("formants") and individual episodes within sections can be performed in an arbitrary order, but one of the forms ("constellation") must necessarily be in the center. The sonata was followed by Figures-Doubles-Prismes for orchestra (1963), Domaines for clarinet and six groups of instruments (1961-1968) and a number of other opuses, which are still constantly revised and edited by the composer, since they are fundamentally unable to complete. One of the few relatively late scores of Boulez with a given form is the solemn half-hour Ritual for a large orchestra (1975), dedicated to the memory of the influential Italian composer, teacher and conductor Bruno Maderna (1920-1973). From the very beginning of his professional career, Boulez discovered an outstanding organizational talent. Back in 1946, he took the post of musical director of the Paris Theatre of Marigny (The’a^tre Marigny), headed by the famous actor and director Jean-Louis Barrot. In 1954, under the auspices of Theatre Boulez, together with Herman Sherchen and Peter Suvchinsky, he established the concert organization Domain Musical, which he led until 1967. Its goal was declared the promotion of ancient and modern music, and the chamber orchestra "Domain Musical" became a model for many groups performing music of the XX century. Under the direction of Boulez, and later his pupil Gilbert Ami, the Domain Musical orchestra recorded many works by new composers, from Schönberg, Webern and Varez to Xenakis, Boulez himself and his associates. Since the mid-sixties, Boulez has intensified his activities as an opera and symphony conductor of the “ordinary” type, not specializing in the performance of old and new music. Accordingly, the productivity of Boulez-composer significantly decreased, and after Ritual, it stopped for several years. One of the reasons for this, along with the development of a conducting career, was the intensive work on the organization in Paris of a grandiose center of new music - the Institute for Musical and Acoustic Studies, IRCAM. In the activities of IRCAM, whose director Boulez was until 1992, two cardinal directions stand out: the promotion of new music and the development of high technologies for sound synthesis. The first public action of the institute was a cycle of 70 concerts of music of the XX century (1977). At the Institute there is a performing collective Ensemble Entercontamporen (Ensemble InterContemporain – International Contemporary Music Ensemble). At the head of the ensemble at different times were different conductors (since 1992 – Englishman David Robertson), but it is Boulez is its generally recognized informal or semi-formal artistic director. The technological base of IRCAM, which includes ultra-modern sound-synthetic equipment, is available to composers from all over the world. Boulez used it in several opuses, the most significant of which is Responsorium for instrumental ensemble and computer-synthesized sounds (1982). In the 1990s, another large-scale project of Boulez was implemented in Paris - the concert, museum and educational complex "City of Music" ("Cite" de la musique"). Many believe that Boulez’s influence on French music is too great, that his IRCAM is a sectarian institution, artificially cultivating a scholastic kind of music that has long lost its relevance in other countries. Further, Boulez’s excessive presence in French musical life is explained by the fact that contemporary French composers, who do not belong to the Boulez circle, as well as French conductors of the middle and young generations, fail to make a solid international career. Be that as it may, Boulez is famous and authoritative enough to keep doing his own thing, or, if you will, to pursue his own policies, without paying attention to critical attacks. If as a composer and musical figure Boulez evokes a complex attitude, then Boulez-conductor can be confidently called one of the largest representatives of this profession in the entire history of its existence. Boulez did not receive special education, on conducting techniques, he was advised by the older generation of conductors devoted to the cause of new music - Roger Desormière, Herman Scherchen and Hans Rosbaud (later the first performer of "The Hammer Without a Master" and the first two "Improvisations on Mallarma"). Unlike almost all the other current conductors, "stars", Boulez began as an interpreter of modern music, primarily his own, as well as his teacher Messiaen. From the classics of the twentieth century, his repertoire was initially dominated by the music of Debussy, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Stravinsky (Russian Period), Varez, Bartok. The choice of Boulez was often dictated not by spiritual affinity to one or another author or love for this or that music, but by considerations of an objectively enlightening order. For example, he openly admitted that among the works of Schoenberg there are some that he does not like, but considers it his duty to perform, because he clearly understands their historical and artistic significance. However, such tolerance does not extend to all authors who are accepted to be enrolled in the classics of new music: Prokofiev and Hindemita Boulez still consider second-class composers, and Shostakovich - and the third (by the way, told by I. D. Glickman in the book "Letters to a friend" the story of how Boulez in New York kissed Shostakovich's hand is an apocrypha; in fact, it was most likely not Boulez, but Leonard Bernstein - a famous lover of such theatrical gestures). One of the key points of the biography of Boulez-conductor was the highly successful production of Alban Berg's opera "Wozzec" at the Paris Opera (1963). This performance, starring the superb Walter Berry and Isabel Strauss, was recorded by CBS and is available to the modern listener on Sony Classical discs. Having staged a sensational, still relatively new and unusual at the time, opera in the citadel of conservatism, which was considered the Grand Opera, Boulez realized his favorite idea of integrating academic and modern performing practices. From here, we can say, Boulez’s career as a Kapellmeister of the “ordinary” type began. In 1966, Wieland Wagner, the composer’s grandson, opera director and manager, known for his unconventional, often paradoxical, ideas, invited Boulez to Bayreuth to conduct Parsifal. A year later, on the tour of the Bayreuth troupe in Japan, Boulez conducted “Tristan and Isolda” (there is a video recording of this play with the exemplary Wagner couple of the 1960s Birgit Nilsson – Wolfgang Windgassen in the title roles; Legato Classics LCV 005, 2 VHS; 1967). Until 1978, Boulez repeatedly returned to Bayreuth to perform Parsifal, and the culmination of his Bayreuth career was the anniversary (to the 100th anniversary of the premiere) production of The Ring of Nibelung in 1976; the world press widely advertised this production as the Ring of the Century. In Bayreuth, Boulez conducted tetralogy for the next four years, and his plays (in the provocative direction of Patrice Shero, who sought to modernize the action) were recorded on discs and videotapes by Philips (12 CD: 434 421-2 - 434 432-2; 7 VHS: 070407-3; 1981). The seventies in the history of the opera were marked by another major event, to which Boulez was directly related: in the spring of 1979, the world premiere of the full version of Berg's opera "Lulu" took place under his control on the stage of the Paris Opera (as is known, Berg died, leaving most of the third act of the opera in sketches; the work on their orchestration, which became possible only after the death of Berg's widow, was carried out by the Austrian composer and conductor Friedrich Cherch). The production of Shero was sustained in the usual for this director sophisticated erotic style, which, however, could not be better suited to Berg's opera with her hypersexual heroine. In addition to these works, Boulez’s operatic repertoire includes Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande, Bartok’s Castle of the Duke of Bluebeard, Schoenberg’s Moses and Aaron. The absence of Verdi and Puccini, not to mention Mozart and Rossini, is significant. Boulez on various occasions repeatedly expressed his critical attitude to the opera genre as such; apparently, his artistic nature is alien to something inherent in genuine, natural opera conductors. Boulez's opera recordings often produce a dual impression: on the one hand, they recognize such "brand" features of the Bulezov style as the highest rhythmic discipline, careful calibration of all relationships vertically and horizontally, unusually clear, clear articulation even in the most complex texture heaps, on the other hand - the selection of singers sometimes clearly leaves much to be desired. Characteristic of the studio recording of Pelleas and Melisande, carried out in the late 1960s by the firm CBS: the role of Pelleas, intended for a typically French high baritone, the so-called baritone-martin (named after the singer J.-B. Martin, 1768-1837), is somehow entrusted, albeit flexible, but stylistically rather inadequate in his role dramatic tenor George Shirley. The main soloists of The Ring of the Century – Guinette Jones (Brunhilda), Donald McIntyre (Wotan), Manfred Jung (Siegfried), Jeannine Altmeyer (Sieglinda), Peter Hoffman (Sigmund) – are generally acceptable, but no more: they lack a bright personality. More or less the same can be said about the protagonists of Parsifal, recorded in Bayreuth in 1970 – James King (Parsifal), the same MacIntyre (Gurnemanz) and Jones (Kundry). Teresa Stratas is an outstanding actress and musician, but she does not always reproduce complex colorature passages in Lulu with due accuracy. At the same time, it is impossible not to mention the magnificent vocal and musical data of the participants of the second recording of Bartokovsky’s “Castle of the Duke of Bluebeard” – Jesse Norman and Laszlo Polgar (DG 447 040-2; 1994).Before leading IRCAM and the Entercontamporen Ensemble, Boulez held the post of chief conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra (1970-1972), the British Broadcasting Corporation Symphony Orchestra (1971-1974) and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (1971-1977). With these bands, he made a number of recordings for CBS, now Sony Classical, many of which have, without exaggeration, enduring value. First of all, this applies to the collections of orchestral works by Debussy (on two discs) and Ravel (on three discs). In the interpretation of Boulez, this music, losing nothing in the sense of elegance, softness of transitions, diversity and sophistication of timbre colors, reveals crystal transparency and purity of lines, and in places also indomitable rhythmic pressure and wide symphonic breathing. The original masterpieces of the performing arts include the recordings of The Wonderful Mandarin made at the same time, Music for Strings, Percussion and Chelesta and the Bartok Orchestra Concerto, Five Pieces for Orchestra, Serenade, Schoenberg's Orchestra Variations, some of the young Stravinsky's scores (but Stravinsky himself was not too pleased with the earlier recording of The Sacred Spring, saying: "It's worse than I expected, knowing the high standards of Maestro Boulez," and "Arcana's Orchestras", "Varna" and all the orchestra..." Like his teacher Hermann Scherchen, Boulez does not use a wand and conducts in an emphatically restrained, businesslike manner, which - along with his reputation as the author of cold, distilled, mathematically calculated scores - fuels the popular view of him as a performer of a purely objective warehouse, competent and reliable, but rather dry (even his incomparable interpretations of the Impressionists were criticized for excessive graphicity and, so to speak, insufficient "impressionism"). Such an assessment is completely inadequate to the scale of the Boulezian gift. As the head of these orchestras, Boulez performed not only Wagner and the music of the twentieth century, but also Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Liszt. Traditional classic-romantic repertoire in commercial records Boulez of the time is poorly represented, but there is something on the discs of small little-known companies. Thus, Memories released Scenes from Faust by Schumann (HR 4489/90), performed on March 7, 1973 in London with the participation of the BBC choir and orchestra and Dietrich Fischer-Diskau in the main part (by the way, shortly before that, the singer performed and officially recorded Faust at the Decca firm (425 705-2; 1972) under the direction of Benjamin Britten - the actual discoverer in the twentieth century of this late, uneven in quality, but locally genitial parity). It is not the exemplary quality of the recording that does not prevent you from assessing the greatness of the plan and the perfection of its implementation; the listener can only envy those lucky people who were in the concert hall that evening. The interaction between Boulez and Fischer-Discau - musicians seemingly so different in talent - leaves much to be desired. The scene of Faust's death sounds at the highest degree of pathetics, and the words "Verweile doch, du bist so schon" ("Oh how beautiful you are, time!" - pen B. Pasternak) amazingly achieves the illusion of stopped time. As head of IRCAM and Entercontamporen Ensemble, Boulez naturally paid much attention to the latest music.
In addition to the works of Messiaen and his own, he especially willingly included in his programs the music of Elliot Carter, Gyord Ligeti, Gyord Kurtag, Harrison Burthuisl, relatively young composers of the IRCAM circle. To fashion minimalism and “new simplicity” he was and continues to be skeptical, comparing them with fast food restaurants: “convenient, but completely uninteresting”. Criticizing rock music for its primitivism, for its “ridiculous abundance of stereotypes and clichés,” he nevertheless acknowledges it as a healthy “vitality”; in 1984, he even recorded “The Perfect Stranger” with the music of Frank Zappa (EMI) with EnterContamporen Ensemble. In 1989, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and two years later he left the official position of head of IRCAM to devote himself fully to composition and performances as a guest conductor. On Deutsche Grammo-phon, Boulez produced new orchestral collections by Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Webern (with the Cleveland, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and London Symphony Orchestras); apart from the quality of the recordings, they are in no way superior to previous CBS publications. Among the outstanding novelties are The Poem of Ecstasy, The Piano Concerto and Scriabin’s Prometheus (in the last two works soloed by pianist Anatoly Ugorsky); I, IV–VII and IX symphonies and Mahler’s Song of the Earth; Bruckner’s VIII and IX symphonies; So Spoke Zarathustra by R. Strauss. In Boulezov’s Maleré, visuality and external impossibility, perhaps, prevail over expression and the desire to reveal metaphysical depths. The recording of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, performed with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during the Bruckner celebrations of 1996, is very stylish and does not inferior to the interpretations of born Brucknerians in terms of the impressive sound build-ups, the grandeur of the climaxes, the expressive saturation of melodic lines, the frenzy in scherzo and the sublime contemplation in adagio. At the same time, Boulez fails to perform a miracle and somehow smooth out the schematism of the Bruckner form, the unmerciful annoyance of sequencing and ostinate repetitions. Curiously, in recent years, Boulez has clearly softened his former hostility to Stravinsky’s “neoclassical” opuses; one of his best recent discs includes Symphony of Psalms and Symphony in Three Movements (with the Berlin Radio Choir and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra). It is hoped that the range of interests of the master will continue to expand, and, who knows, perhaps, we will hear in his performance the works of Verdi, Puccini, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.