The concert celebrated the fifty six year relationship Pierre Boulez had with the Edinburgh International Festival. He died in January 2016 and music lost one of its most influential figures. For many years Boulez brought to the Edinburgh Festival his Ensemble Intercontemporain which he had founded in 1976. It was fitting that the concert was conducted by German composer and conductor Matthias Pinscher. He was a close friend of Boulez and is a world-renowned interpreter of his music. In 2013 he followed in the great Frenchman’s footsteps as musical director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain.
Boulez's most significant work was Pli selon pli, or Fold by fold. As each of its five movements unfolds more is learned of French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallard. We heard only the first of the movements, Don, in which Yeree Suh was the exquisite soprano soloist.
Alban Berg's Three Pieces came in three very different movements. Präludium was powerful and influenced by Mahler whilst the second reminded us that Berg was of the Viennese school and was a series of dances. The third was very much a march, sometimes fast sometimes with bugle calls and drum beats.
After the interval came Debussy's La Mer and it was not hard to hear the strength of the waves. Debussy is said to have loved being by the sea. And finally another Boulez composition Mémoriale (…explosante-fixe…Original) written initially to commemorate the death of Stravinsky in 1971 but altered some years later for six strings and two horns. They were at the front of the stage. The other members of the Orchestra stayed still in their places. A fitting tribute to the great Pierre Boulez.
Performance: Friday 12th August 2016 at 19:30