Take away the dangerous radical politics, the embarrassingly limiting declarations of who can and cannot compose, and the legend of the enfant terrible that has grown up around Pierre Boulez, and you will find a composer of some interesting (if not a little “wacky”) music. Pli selon pli, a long, generous song cycle loosely based on poems by Stéphane Mallarmé, is an excellent example of both the power and the narrowness of vision that Boulez is capable of, being at once potent and overlong. This is music that can be a little hard even on the most willing and open ears. However, as Boulez gets older, and perhaps a little softer, his recordings of his own work allow the romantic that has always lurked beneath his surface to come out. Sure, he’s up to his old tricks: the snapping, snarling atonal music, the sudden, brutal instrumental screams, the tinkling percussion; but now he is able to soften things, to make his gestures sing more than shout. He seems less concerned with being shocking, with flipping the proverbial bird at the concert music establishment, and more concerned with the actual effect (and even accessibility) of his music.
Pli selon pli is almost a programmatic work, with each section not only a setting but a musical translation of a different Mallarmé poem. The text to “Don” is “about” echoes, and the music reflects this, verging on antiphonal. The “Improvisation Mallarmé I” offers an insight into a gorgeous text about a swan who cannot fly, and the reticent drum taps illustrate the creature’s reticence. The waves of the second improvisation are evident in the score, as is the overwhelming cloud of the third and the trickling stream of the final movement.
One thing is made clear in this recording: Boulez himself has found a new point of entry into his own music. This is Boulez “warm”, offering a less clipped reading than his mid-1990s Sony outing, demonstrating a richer sonic palette and a greater command of his own work’s drama. Boulez’s band, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, is unfailingly brilliant, especially the woodwinds and percussion, and Boulez can draw from his players all manner of strange and wonderful sounds. Soprano Christine Schäfer is his perfect interpreter, with a light, agile voice that seems able to scale even the largest interval with finesse and pointed accuracy.
