Taking Time Out From the Podium to Bask in His Own Melodies

After the triumphal march, the laurel crown.  On Monday night, after his three concerts conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, Pierre Boulez was honored as composer by the Ensemble Sospeso at a Works & Process concert at Alice Tully Hall.

It was a happy occasion.  Mr. Boulez, speaking from the platform in conversation with the Sospeso directors, Joshua Cody and Kirk Noreen, was relaxed, amiable, charming, witty.  The audience responded warmly to him, and rose to give him an ovation after the performance of his Marteau Sans Maître at the end of the evening.

Three of his later works were played in the first half.  Messagesquisse was given with Christopher Finckel as the lead cello.  Memoriale featured Cécile Daroux on solo flute with an excellent pair of horns, Michael Atkinson and Theodore Primis, creeping out from behind her.  Eclat had a lot of brilliance and nervy energy, especially from Stephen Gosling in the important piano part.

Le Marteau, written nearly half a century ago, embraced everything else in a glorious retrospect.  The abundant flute melody, played by David Fedele, contained Memoriale and a great deal more.  Important features of Eclat—the discontinuity, the scattered unisons and the emergence of serpentine melody in regular rhythm—were anticipated in just the fourth movement of the earlier piece.

Julia Bentley delivered the vocal part carefully and definitely, without expressionist exaggeration.  Also excellent was the percussion team of Thomas Kolor, Pablo Rieppi, and David Shively.  Lois Martin on viola and Paul Bowman on guitar had many nice moments.

THIS IS AN EXCERPT · DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

back to press