Document

  1983
    May 1983
        Orchestral
                Boulez Pli selon pli.

Boulez Pli selon pli. Phyllis Bryn-Julson (sop) BBC Symphony Orchestra / Pierre Boulez.

Erato digital (Full price) (LP) NUM75050 (two records, nas) Text and translations included.

In these days of austerity, a new recording of Pli selon pli, rather than a reissue of its predecessor (CBS 72770, 1/70—nla), is a special, surprising luxury, which was probably only possible because of a project linking it to public performances in London and Paris in the autumn of 1981. This recording was actually made in the BBC's Maida Vale studios in London, and the result is a sonic spectacular, with all the rich, spacious resonances which the music so resourcefully creates and exploits.

Spaciousness is now the essence of Boulez's interpretation, too. He unfolds his labyrinthine, allusive portrait of Mallarme with more deliberation than he did in 1969—hence the need to occupy a third side. In particular, the final movement, "Tombeau", is much less hectic than in the earlier version, and I'm not sure, on the basis of the limited comparisons I've been able to make so far, that the result is in all respects an improvement—impressively consistent and controlled though it undoubtedly is.

Apart from the collective virtuosity of the BBC orchestra (it's regrettable that the names of the principal solo performers are not given) this version has the benefit of Phyllis Bryn-Julson as solo singer. Evern she takes an ossia in the stratospheric final declamation of "Tombeau", but in the three "Improvisations" (especially the third) her ability to colour and shape complex lines spontaneously is completely convincing and unfailingly exciting.

Pli selon pli is ultimately ambiguous in its very shape and size, an extraordinarily ambitious attempt to bring into focus the spirit and substance of very diverse impulses and entities—the "cloud" and the "lava" of Mallarme's poetry. This new recording is still not a last word: but it is a superb technical achievement, and a fascinating document of how, in the early 1980s, Boulez sees his major project of the early 1960s.

AW



		In these days of austerity, a new recording of Pli selon pli, rather than a reissue of its predecessor (CBS 72770, 1/70—nla), is a special, surprising luxury, which was probably only possible because of a project linking it to public performances in London and Paris in the autumn of 1981. This recording was actually made in the BBC's Maida Vale studios in London, and the result is a sonic spectacular, with all the rich, spacious resonances which the music so resourcefully creates and exploits.



		Spaciousness is now the essence of Boulez's interpretation, too. He unfolds his labyrinthine, allusive portrait of Mallarme with more deliberation than he did in 1969—hence the need to occupy a third side. In particular, the final movement, "Tombeau", is much less hectic than in the earlier version, and I'm not sure, on the basis of the limited comparisons I've been able to make so far, that the result is in all respects an improvement—impressively consistent and controlled though it undoubtedly is.



		Apart from the collective virtuosity of the BBC orchestra (it's regrettable that the names of the principal solo performers are not given) this version has the benefit of Phyllis Bryn-Julson as solo singer. Evern she takes an ossia in the stratospheric final declamation of "Tombeau", but in the three "Improvisations" (especially the third) her ability to colour and shape complex lines spontaneously is completely convincing and unfailingly exciting.



		Pli selon pli is ultimately ambiguous in its very shape and size, an extraordinarily ambitious attempt to bring into focus the spirit and substance of very diverse impulses and entities—the "cloud" and the "lava" of Mallarme's poetry. This new recording is still not a last word: but it is a superb technical achievement, and a fascinating document of how, in the early 1980s, Boulez sees his major project of the early 1960s.