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#BoulezGuide, part one. @TomService's Twitter notes for 'Dérive 2'
For the BBC television transmissions of the first four of Daniel Barenboim's 2012 Beethoven Proms, Tom Service has written fascinating Twitter notes for the works by Pierre Boulez which Barenboim has between the Beethoven Symphonies. Here are Tom's notes from the first of the Beethoven/Boulez Proms.
Boulez novice? Guru? Fanboy? Watch #Prom9 and read @TomService's illuminating tweets about man and work on @BBCProms. Hashtag: #BoulezGuide
It starts with a horn call… and is propelled into life – fast, fragmentary life. (TS) #boulezguide- 11 instruments, 55 minutes, 1 teeming, irresistible musical labyrinth. Hold on to your hats…(Tom Service) #boulezguide
- Contrast here: bell-like resonance in piano, harp, and percussion, explosive atoms in the other instruments. (TS) #boulezguide
- Micro-solo for the viola now, focusing the music’s energy in some ferocious semiquavers. Real virtuosity from the player! (TS) #boulezguide
- There’s a trenchant horn line in the middle of all this quantum activity – the music in a continual state of forming. (TS) #boulezguide
- … which produces this moment of tense, chordal coming-together. But only a fleeting moment of respite! (TS) #boulezguide
- These snaking, oily triplets in the bassoon, viola, and cello are an important texture in the piece. (TS) #boulezguide
- But then there are these notes in the horn that seem to ricochet off each other, starting off more explosions. (TS) #boulezguide
- Amazing how Boulez changes tempo with quicksilver unpredictability. (Tom Service) #boulezguide
- But now there’s a full-on duet between the cor anglais and the viola. That’s a real tune! (TS) #boulezguide
- The horn’s so often on its own in this piece: in the blink of an eye, a ricochet of notes – and then a lyrical solo. (TS) #boulezguide
- Ricochets, bells, and those snaking triplets – all in quick succession! Boulez mashes up the elements of Dérive. (TS) #boulezguide
- The effect of all these rhythmic layers is like a kind of chaotic clockwork. (TS) #boulezguide
- After all that, has the music run out of steam? A strange, disturbing stasis, where Boulez keeps us all on tenterhooks. (TS) #boulezguide
- This music in the marimba, vibes, and piano is marked ‘irregular, improvised’. Boulez does jazz. Nice. (TS) #boulezguide
- Hear that in the harp? An E flat, as it goes. Get used to it. It’s the basis for the next two minutes of music…(TS) #boulezguide
- … and around it are weird calls in the woodwind and horn, some dark fizzing in the percussion and piano. Are we becalmed? (TS) #boulezguide
- No! Boom. Off we go again, more contrast between staccato points and slurred, snaking triplets. (TS) #boulezguide
- You want bells? You got ‘em - Boulez makes the piano a vallée des cloches…(TS) #boulezguide
- … around which he builds a texture of sinewy melodies. Melodies! (TS) #boulezguide
- The dry energy of this place reminds me of neo-classical Stravinsky. Don’t tell Pierre…(TS) #boulezguide
- Patterns are emerging; another fraught climactic’s coming together – more bells, more melodies. The music tries again…(TS) #boulezguide
