Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This year is the centenary of Pierre Boulez, the iconoclast of late 20th-century classical music. There has been insufficient time since his 2016 death to fully measure his legacy. Its most enduring part may have less to do with his own music-making than his institutional influence.As a composer, he was a founder of what became known as the International style, a rigorous method that extended Arnold Schoenberg’s system of removing tonal centres and forms from music into details of rhythm, dynamics, and more. That has waned and appears increasingly archaic. A self-taught conductor, he made many excellent recordings and led notable productions of operas by Wagner and Berg (he once infamously suggested that the “most elegant solution to the problem of opera was to blow up the opera houses”). But he could be inconsistent at the podium.He was also an important figure behind some of the major contemporary music institutions. These include the Cité de la musique complex in Paris and the Lucerne Festival Academy. Above all, he created the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) for research into sound and technological applications for music.With each, Boulez made new materials and methods available for others, adding to the musical toolkit. From IRCAM alone comes music software used by everyone from researchers at universities to laptop producers.Two recent concerts outlined his impact. The New York Philharmonic presented “Sound On: A Tribute to Boulez” at New York’s David Geffen Hall, a matinée on the last Saturday in January that recreated one of his programmes from his time as Philharmonic music director, 1971-1977. David Robertson conducted, and led high-spirited performances of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 3 and Schubert’s Symphony No 2. The second half was modern, with Webern’s Symphony, Op 21, Boulez’s two improvisations from his large-scale setting of symbolist poetry by Stéphane Mallarmé, Pli selon Pli, with soprano Jana McIntyre making a stellar Philharmonic debut singing the luminous texts, and the suite from Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. Except for the Boulez, the playing was often awkward and sluggish — especially weighed down by lengthy pauses between the movements of L’Histoire.★★★☆☆The following Thursday, the International Contemporary Ensemble presented “Boulez Rebooted” at Zankel Hall. This was focused on Boulez’s influence as composer and IRCAM founder. The first half opened with baritone Will Liverman singing Kaija Saariaho’s ghostly Sombre (with excerpts from Ezra Pound’s “The Cantos”) — the late Finnish composer was a proponent of “spectralism”, the avant-garde style that originated in sonic research at IRCAM. This was followed by Philippe Manoury’s dynamite Hypothèse du Sextuor — six musicians in play and conflict — and Tyshawn Sorey’s delicate and mysterious deconstruction of Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady”, Sentimental Shards. Fireworks came after the interval, with violinist Gabriela Diaz’s enthralling virtuosic performance of Boulez’s Anthèmes II, and Levy Lorenzo managing the electronic processing of Diaz’s plucks, trills, glassy whispers and luscious phrases. The programme concluded with the world premiere of Pliages, hommage à Pierre Boulez, for musicians and the Somax2 AI software from IRCAM. While an ensemble of harp, piano, percussion and soprano improvised from Pli selon Pli, Somax2 listened via microphones and responded algorithmically with a digital palette “trained on . . . Boulez’s works”, according to the concert notes. A horizontal light bar positioned centre stage lit up with each Somax2 note. This had Boulez’s ringing sound, and was a fascinating demonstration of the latest technology. But in contrast to the live musicians, Somax2’s AI felt inert — too mechanical to satisfy.★★★★☆nyphil.org; iceorg.org
