The sizzling sound spectacle of Boulez has eternal value

Much glitter volcano

There is endless much to say about the construction of Réponsbut more importantly, the work can be experienced as a sensual, dynamic, hypervirtuoso and completely unique sound bath. The piece is inimitably complicated together (Boulez is indeed complex), but in the core it is a question-answer game between ensemble, soloists and electronics. Live electronic soundworking is nowadays easily available as free apps, but then Boulez Répons Composed – the completed version premiered in 1985 – it was a groundbreaking concept: after an acoustic start, soloists and electronics use a tingling gesture who surround in surround through the room. The sound moves stuttering and flagging, crossed in concentric circles with the laws of cubism. It is elusive and compelling. Répons occurs as a continuous metamorphosis: it is a much -headed glitter volcano, a mercury fever dragon, a fire -breathing dream, the legend of the enchanted glock spiel.

Ten years ago wax Répons To be heard in the echoing Gashouder of the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, in the context of the Holland Festival, by Boulez ‘Own Ensemble Intercontemporain. That was an event of great, but the performance on Sunday evening in De Doelen in Rotterdam was not inferior. In fact, the drier indoor acoustics provided the crowded, ingenious work placed in space a beautiful transparency. With the ensemble on stage, the six soloists (harpist Miriam Overlach, pianists Pauline Post and Jan Michiels, cimbalom player Jan Rokyta and percussionists Joey Marijs and Tom De Cock) around it on the balconies and around a circle of loudspeakers, the version was crystal.

A music culture would be crazy to lose sight of such a spectacle. Now that Boulez is just as dead as Mahler and Beethoven is coming.

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