Pierre Boulez occupies a prominent role in the history of the New York Philharmonic. Only three months after his March 1969 debut conducting Debussy’s La Mer, he was appointed successor to then Music Director Leonard Bernstein. During his six-year tenure (1971-1977) he introduced a range of early 20th-century modernists to the orchestra’s repertoire along with novel approaches to attract new audiences. His innovations included “Rug Concerts”, in which orchestra-level audience seating in Geffen Hall (then Philharmonic Hall) was replaced with cushions to create a more relaxed atmosphere, and seats were made available behind the more centrally positioned orchestra –– anticipating changes that became permanent when the reimagined David Geffen Hall reopened in 2022.
In this concert, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Boulez’s associate and musical heir, continued the late French maestro’s centennial celebration, which began last season, leading an electrifying program dedicated to Boulez’s music as well as that of his predecessor and countryman, Debussy. It was a major musical event, a bold, inventive lineup which included pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Boulez’s student and collaborator, playing three selections from his teacher’s Douze Notations. The youthfully radical solo piano pieces – each only twelve bars long – were juxtaposed with performances of their grandly expanded orchestral versions, created decades later, along with Debussy’s Fantaisie, La Mer and two movements from Images.
After Aimard – seated at a spotlit keyboard set up at the back of the darkened orchestra – rattled off the compact original of Boulez’s Notations IV, Rythmique, the house lights went up and Salonen segued into a steadily paced performance of its complex, colorfully orchestrated counterpart. The extravagantly large ensemble (with eight percussionists) produced an overwhelmingly sweeping sound in the huge hall. From there the orchestra moved directly into an impressive interpretation of Debussy’s Gigues, highlighted by the irresistible sound of a melancholic oboe d’amore. After a brief pause, Aimard launched into the minute-long Notation VII, Hiératique for solo piano followed by Salonen leading a sumptuous rendering of its astonishing ten-minute-long orchestral overhaul. After a slight pause came a glistening, wonderfully balanced traversal of Debussy’s Rondes de printemps. The piano version of Boulez’s caustic Notation II, Très vif and a remorseless interpretation of its orchestral metamorphosis, brought the first half of the evening to a vigorous and violent end.
With the piano repositioned at the front of the stage, the second half of the program, devoted to Debussy, began with his frequently overlooked Fantaisie for piano and orchestra, the composer's only attempt at a piano concerto. The opening Andante was expressive and alert, and the dreamy second movement touching as Salonen expertly managed the delicate strings before moving into a bright and pointed Allegro finale.
With the Philharmonic in its finest form, Salonen elicited a flowing, picturesque account of Debussy’s masterwork, La Mer. Conjuring up visions of light and shade and the ebb and flow of undulating waves, he led the opening movement to a dynamic, high-noon conclusion. The deftly executed second was appropriately bright and playful. The performance as a whole was masterfully balanced, with the orchestra offering a wealth of splendor and turbulence in the finale.
