Pierre Boulez, Ensemble InterContemporain - Pierre Boulez: Sur Incises, Messagesquisse, Anthèmes 2 (2000)

Boulez's creativity has always been fascinated with a musical situation where the materials imply themselves, where layers,textures,timbres can reproduce themselves,where the materials generate themselves,and take essentially a life of their own. And here in these three relatively modest works we find Boulez almost harboring etude-like substances and implications.
Sur Incises for instance implies a sensual poetic beauty,a dimension Boulez has engaged his entire creative life. He brings this profound dimension to the modernist repertoire he conducts as well. Knowing the various harmonics possibilities in strings,or alternate fingering in winds. But here in Sur Incises the opening piano tyrannical cell of an idea makes an entire galaxy of sound,very subtle cohere to it, like an uncompromising polar fixed point, where timbres can fly and emanate,and reproduce themselves. The marimba,its fast quips,especially its lower regions here is simply breathtaking, what it suggests,perhaps an attenuated timbre from a lost island. The work, the first movement "Moment 1" here is deeply evocative with a high level of shards,fragments,particles of timbres that cohere. The constituted timbres here of three pianos, three harps, and percussion is a fascinating situation in and of itself. The second movement "Moment 2"is more a surface piece with its reiterated tones is not as evocative, more music that simply moves in one-dimension. The reiterated tones reminded me of the Debussy's piano etude"pour les notes repetees".
The title "Messagesquisse",is a portmanteau word a hybrid of "messages" and "esquisse"(sketches). It is for 7 violoncellos,where there is soloist,like a spine directing the dimensions,the shape of the work. And this functions quite well, where the leader commences the timbral proceedings,as in the opening ethereal harmonics,and everyone follows. The work has a shape like a modest etude, yet it seems to transcend that,with its multi-movement implications,and resting points.Yet the work simply traverses its materials fairly within well prescribed boundaries,with easy discernable functions. The work is dedicated to Paul Sacher,long a close supporter of Boulez in the early days when his genius was a well guarded secret.
The solo violin as a genre has never been an interesting situation. Sebastian Bach of course has the Sonatas and Partitas, yet the Violoncello Suites seem to climb the heavens by comparison. Bartok's Unaccompanied Solo Sonata is another profound contribution to the literature. Also modern Violin Concertos are not in great abundance. And those who usually write one, only write one, Stravinsky,Berg,Schoenberg,Bartok, Barber,Adams. Within the perspective of a modernist extended musical language even Luigi Nono's work "La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura" where a solo violin is scoured with prerecorded material of it,which is electronically manipulated,(as here in Boulez Anthemes) is not an interesting piece. I didn't sense sophisticated manipulation here of the violin timbre. The trill sections,and on-going rush of tones are simply reverberated and smeared,where the rhythm is displaced by a beat, or half-beat. The electronics as well doesn't retransform the violin timbre in any way interesting,with its simple ascending glissandi .Within the large spectrum of electronic manipulation this is fairly commonplace. The import of the title should have suggested something more interesting, the haunting strophic psalm setting, the Anthemes.Still this is again like an etude,and a good one in the simple transformations. Yet I can see innumerable clones of this piece,if they haven't been written already.