Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Boulez

À la Fondation Vuitton, le pianiste propose un programme audacieux ficelé autour de l’italien Sciarrino, du britannique Thomas Adès, de Neuburger en personne, pour finir avec la figure tutélaire de Boulez. 

Ce dimanche, on découvrait deux valeurs parmi les plus sûres du piano français au Festival Solistes à Bagatelle : Sélim Mazari et Jean-Paul Gasparian.

Retour sur un programme retraçant l'histoire de l'Intercontemporain.

Messagesquisse de Boulez est une prise de risque admirable dans un concert qui rejoint la grande Sol Gabetta avec Martinů et Respighi.

Éblouissantes interprétations des Siècles, au milieu d'un rituel qui aurait bien plu à Monsieur Croche.

Le 5 janvier 2016, Pierre Boulez est mort, à l’âge de 90 ans. Trois semaines après, la Philharmonie de Paris lui consacrait une soirée hommage, conçue avec l’Ensemble Intercontemporain, l’IRCAM (tous deux fondés par Pierre Boulez),  l’Orchestre de Paris, et le Conservatoire de Paris.

Avec une soirée mixte réunissant les chorégraphies de Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor et Pina Bausch, l’Opéra de Paris rend hommage au compositeur et chef d’orchestre contemporain Pierre Boulez.

Pour l'édition 2015 du Festival Musica de Strasbourg, Pierre-Laurent Aimard nous donne un récital centré sur la musique de Pierre Boulez, mais où se côtoient aussi Ligeti et Beethoven.

Les concerts de musique d’avant-garde sont réputés difficiles. Pourtant, le concert donné à l’occasion du 90e anniversaire de Pierre Boulez s’est déroulé devant une salle pleine, ou presque, d’un public manifestement enthousiaste.

Pour le dernier concert de la série du Barbican "Boulez at 90", l’Ensemble intercontemporain jouait Boulez, mais aussi Yann Robin et Matthias Pintscher sous la direction de ce dernier. Une performance d'exception, superbe hommage au maître.

Un concert de « musique spatiale », composé d’œuvres de Grisey, Saariaho, Maresz, Harvey et Boule, au festival de Radio France, à Montpellier. Le spectateur est projeté dans un autre espace-temps, pour une immersion au cœur de la technologie et de l’innovation artistique qui ne peut laisser indifférent.

Bold and colourful invocations of twentieth-century classics from Ensemble Modern and composer George Benjamin.

Celebrating Debussy on the 100th anniversary of his death, this programme played to the strengths of the LSO under the energetic direction of François-Xavier Roth.

François-Xavier Roth auspiciado por primera vez por Ibermúsica se presentó al frente de la Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, les acompañó el pianista Benjamin Grosvenor en el segundo concierto de Beethoven, el programa se completó con Livre de courdes de Boulez y el Concierto para orquesta de Bartók.

An anniversary gala concert with historic references worth the hype.

After a 34 year hiatus from the Konzerthaus stage, the Toronto Symphony gave a knockout performance that had everything in spades

A typically adventurous programme "curated" by Esa-Pekka Salonen paired Boulez with Debussy. 

Oliver Knussen and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group excel in a cunningly linked group of works from the old (mid 1980s) to the brand new.

The Musikfest Berlin presented their own ‘Hommage’ to Boulez with his complete works for piano performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich.

Such a protean symphony needs a deft hand on the tiller and, as in his CBSO recording, Simon Rattle was just the man to steer it into harbour.

This Late Night Prom was a fitting way to remember the man. Such events draw a lighter scattering of musical night owls, minimising the hall and allowing for meditative concentration.

Für mich war es eine ausgezeichnete Orchesterleistung, eine sehr überzeugende Interpretation, die mich fragen lässt, was denn an dieser Symphonie wohl schwer zu verstehen sei!

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s Academy is the future of this city’s most famous orchestra. Established 40 years ago by Herbert von Karajan, a third of current Berliner Philharmoniker members are Academy graduates.

Einen Abend voller wilder Farben und Bilder gestalteten die Göteborger Symphoniker in dieser Woche mit Barbara Hannigan unter Kent Nagano.

Ein ergreifender Abgesang auf Pierre Boulez, in dem man die vom Komponisten hinterlassene Lücke nach dem letzten Werk fast greifen konnte.

As part of the New York Philharmonic’s CONTACT new music series at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, Esa-Pekka Salonen drew connections among Olivier Messiaen, two of his students (Pierre Boulez and George Benjamin) and one outlier (Oliver Knussen).

Marisol Montalvo und das ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien unter Cornelius Meister eröffnen das diesjährige Wien Modern im Wiener Konzerthaus

For their first and last ever visit to the Proms, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg and François-Xavier Roth gave a thrilling concert of 20th-century masterpieces, celebrating a rich history of creative inspiration.

The Lucerne Festival recently celebrated the life and musical achievement of the great French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

The concert, which was part of Mostly Mozart’s “A Little Night Music” series of late-night events, was comprised of six preludes, six canons, and George Benjamin’s 2001 composition Shadowlines, six canonic preludes for the piano that were written for Aimard.

The monumental shadow of Pierre Boulez loomed rather too large over Ravel's Left Hand Concerto and the full Firebird in François-Xavier Roth's detailed readings.

Exquisite Boulez and Francesconi from Mälkki and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, before the conductor pushed the ensemble to its limits in The Planets.

Ruth Mackenzie, Holland Festival’s vivacious and invigorating new director, closed her first edition with a twelve hour Prom, reinventing it as a mini-festival at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

The London Symphony Orchestra celebrates Boulez at 90 with a compelling performance under his protege Péter Eötvös.

The first performance of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion Day: Pierre Boulez at 90 featured the composer's Piano Sonata no. 2 and Éclat/Multiples.

The four-part concert, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, emphasized Boulez's relationship with the orchestra as composer, teacher, conductor, and friend, with four musical works to illustrate those characteristics.

The four pieces – all U.S. premières – created a portrait of Boulez minus Boulez, reminding me of a middle school art exercise in which we were asked to draw an egg without any white crayons.

Exceptional performances of Grisey, Dufourt and Boulez were let down by weak Beethoven from the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov at the Barbican.

London, along with a large portion of the world, spent most of summer 2012 in awe of an elite group of athletes, cheering on their every move as they undertook a series of arcane but technically demanding tasks in public.

After the epic grandeur, sweep and immersive quality of Gesang der Jünglinge at this summer’s Proms, this performance as part of Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival had a lot to live up to. In many ways, however, this far less ostentatious outing overseen by Sound Intermedia got even closer to the work’s disturbing essence.

This Sunday, pianist Karim Said returned to the Southbank Centre to put Arnold Schoenberg under the microscope for a third and last time. Performing as part of the International Piano Series 2012/13 and the cataclysmic Rest is Noise festival, Said’s concerts have focused on the genesis of the Second Viennese School.

It was a surprising afternoon of world premières at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw this weekend. With promises of young talent, such as the rising Dutch recorder player Erik Bosgraaf, and daring new compositions by Peter Adriaansz and Louis Andriessen, the event shed some light on the state of modern music today.

Following on from the Contemporary Chamber Works concert of the LSO Futures series, François-Xavier Roth was back less than an hour later with the Symphonic Sound Worlds programme. This formed the second part of his investigation into the nature of the orchestra, its traditional forms and generic makeup.

No ordinary youth orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra causes quite a stir wherever it performs. Comprised of a mix of Arab, Israeli and Spanish musicians, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is committed to coexistence and a peaceful solution to the violent conflict in the Middle East.

Unlike the rest of of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's Proms thus far, this concert was not a sandwich. It was more of a chocolate cupcake, with a creamy topping of Beethoven and a strong, substantial body made of Boulez. Not one for the dieters, but a wonderful late-night snack before the next day's roast dinner of Beethoven 9.

Onwards Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra went, then, jumping forwards from a rousing Fifth to the Eighth, once again playing the later, even-numbered half of a ‘pair’ before the odd. Asked why the Seventh was much preferred publicly to the Eighth, Beethoven is apocryphally to have replied: “because the Eighth is so much better.

So Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra continue on their odyssey demonstrating for us what Beethoven might mean in the 21st century. Barenboim’s back-to-the-future approach clearly to some seems anachronistic after years in which Beethoven has been the preserve of ‘period’ bands, and in which even the grandest and oldest of orchestras have altered their traditions.

Programming works by Pierre Boulez alongside a high-profile Beethoven symphony cycle is an easy way to give exposure to the strikingly modern works of the Frenchman, but on seeing a substantial chunk of the audience disappear for an early drink before tonight's Boulez, I wondered if the Beethoven was perhaps too reliable a foil, leaving people little incentive to stay.

Why would you ever perform Beethoven 1 and 2 today? Beethoven wrote seven later symphonies which are clearly better. That's kind of the point of Beethoven. Looking back on these two quite early works given knowledge of those masterful symphonies yet to come, it's hard to justify their performance except as stages in a story – a story which, if truth be told, is pretty familiar.

Gloria Cheng is an uncommon artist. A specialist in contemporary piano literature, she has made a career championing new music and performing programs of adventurous (which is to say, esoteric) works. She is a frequent collaborator with some of the leading lights of contemporary music, including Pierre Boulez and Esa-Pekka Salonen.