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BOULEZ CENTENARY

Boulez's music continues to be taken up by interpreters of the next generation. In September 2018 the first edition of the Pierre Boulez Biennial took place in Paris and Berlin, a joint initiative by the Philharmonie de Paris and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim, in which performances of Boulez's music are set in the context of works which influenced him. The second Biennial was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but a modified version went ahead (online in 2020, in person in 2021), with a particular focus on the piano music. The third iteration took place in April/May 2023.

The centenary of Boulez's birth will be marked in 2025 by concerts, exhibitions and other events. From January, the Philharmonie de Paris will present a series of concerts featuring his music, beginning with a programme of Répons and other works by the Ensemble intercontemporain, joined by former members including the cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. In its 2024/2025 season, the New York Philharmonic will present two concerts - one of which will be a recreation of a Boulez programme from 1974 - and an exhibition. On 26 March 2025 (the anniversary date), as part of a 'Total Immersion Day' at the Barbican in London, the BBC Symphony Orchestra will present performances of Boulez's works (including a complete performance of Pli selon pli), interspersed with films and talks with people who worked with him. In May, Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in programmes which will include performances of Rituel, presented in collaboration with LA Dance Project and choreographer Benjamin Millepied. In August, the Lucerne Summer Festival will feature rare performances of Livre pour quatuor (the Arditti Quartet) and Poésie pour pouvoir for tape and three orchestras (Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, conducted by David Robertson), as well as Répons, Figures-Doubles-Prismes and other works. Other series and individual concerts featuring Boulez's music will be presented across the year by the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.

PRIMO LEVI

1. In "A Good Day" the first day of sunshine gives the prisoners hope of spring. But as soon as they forget about the cold, they remember how hungry they are. They torment each other by describing long-ago meals. The discovery by the barrack's resident fixer of a 50-litre vat of soup temporarily removes that source of unhappiness. With their hunger assuaged, they can think of their mothers and wives, which they rarely allow themselves to do. For a few hours they are unhappy in the manner of free men.
2. In "This Side of Good and Evil" Levi describes the intricacies of the black market in the camp; how the smallest possession can be bartered in the search to survive. The internal economy is complex and volatile; the rules which govern it, and the punishments meted out to those who engage in it, are so perverse that ordinary notions of good and evil, justice and injustice, cannot apply.
3. "The Drowned and the Saved"
4. "Chemistry Examination"
5. "The Canto of Ulysses"
6. "The Events of the Summer"
7. In "October 1944" the prisoners anticipate a 'selection': the Germans will send a proportion of the prisoners to the gas chambers to make room for new arrivals. No one knows the exact day on which it will take place; the prisoners reassure each other that surely it will not be they who will be selected. When it comes, the process is so perfunctory that it is almost a matter of chance who is chosen.

LANGUAGE TEMPLATE

Le marteau sans maitre Le marteau sans maitre

ORIGINAL

Pierre Boulez (26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music He played an important role in the development of integral serialism in the 1950s, controlled chance music in the 1960s and the electronic transformation of instrumental music in real time from the 1970s. Boulez was music director of the New York Philharmonic, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestras. He also made frequent appearances with other orchestras. He was known for his performances of the music of the first half of the twentieth century and that of his contemporaries. He set up the Domaine musical in Paris, and later established the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique and the Ensemble intercontemporain. Later he co-founded the Cité de la Musique in Paris and the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland. (Full article...)

REVISION

Pierre Boulez (26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer and conductor. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. As a composer he played a leading role in the development of integral serialism in the 1950s, and the electronic transformation of instrumental music in real time from the 1970s. He conducted many of the world's great orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra; in the 1970s he was music director of the New York Philharmonic and chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was known for his performances of the music of the twentieth century, including Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg. His work in the opera house included the production of Wagner's Ring cycle for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival. He also established several musical institutions, including the the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique and the Ensemble intercontemporain. (Full article...)

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

A few nit-picking observations on style only.

• Could the repetition of 'sequel' in the lead be avoided?
• Is 'again' needed after 'as in the earlier book'?
• I enjoyed n1 on the etiquette of mirrors.
• "When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean" - should 'when' be capitalised when the others in the list aren't?
• 'This was not confirmed by Carroll, nor an alternative account stating...' - should it be 'nor was'?
• 'working slowly and intermittently; in February 1867...' would a full stop be better, given that you don't use the semi-colon to break up the rest of the para?
• (The title page carries the publication date 1872, but Through the Looking-Glass was on sale in time for Christmas 1871.) It looks odd to me to have a whole, separate sentence in brackets - are the brackets necessary?
• 'She arrives in a forest where a gnat teaches her about looking glass insects – creatures part-insect and part-object – such as "Bread-and-butterfly", "Rocking-horsefly", before vanishing.' - is there one clause too many? Perhaps a new sentence for the vanishing?
• '"The Walrus and the Carpenter" employs the rhyme-scheme and metre of Thomas Hood's ballad "The Dream of Eugene Aram", but is not a parody of it. Carroll commented, "I had no particular poem in mind. The metre is a common one, and I don’t think 'Eugene Aram' suggested it more than the many other poems I have read in the same metre".' - Don't the two halves of this contradict each other? Would it be better to say something like: 'Although the rhyme-scheme and metre of X mirror that of Y, it is not a parody of it; indeed, Carroll denied that he had the poem in mind: 'The metre is a common one' etc.
• The German translation of Jabberwocky is oddly reminiscent of the Ring Cycle (all that alliteration, I suppose).
• I think there may be one too many of the contemporary reviews; they all say quite similar things.

A very enjoyable read, as always. I'll now go and read the book (which I'm embarrassed to say I never have).