Boulez at the Proms

[Alison]

I really miss Pierre at the Proms.

How much more gripping his La Valse would have been, for example.

Please post any memories of past Boulez Proms.

Or devise some hypothetical ones.

[Al R Gando]

Please post any memories of past Boulez Proms.

His hopeless Glagolitic Mass in 2008. I've never heard the work fall flatter than under Petit Pierre, who conducted it on autopilot.

[Chris Newman]

In 1968 I heard Pierre Boulez conduct Mahler's Fifth Symphony at the Proms. Would you believe it but it was the FIRST TIME that the work was played at a Prom?

I remember the BBC SO were very badly behaved when they played Stockhausen's Gruppen. Several members who should have known better wore crash helmets. Despite that Boulez later became Chief Conductor of the BBC SO at the request of the orchestra members.

Boulez's Gurrelieders by Schonberg were great nights.

Messiaen's "Et Exspecto Resurrectionum Mortuorum" ... WOW!

Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with Sir Clifford Curzon. My joint favourite with Artur Rubinstein in another place. Glorious music making as is the BBC Legends disc made a few months earlier at the RFH.

[Petrushka]

Yes, he did some terrific programmes back in the early 1970's and though I heard only a few on the radio my old Prom Guides reveal some ones I wish I had attended. One such corker was Mahler 9 preceded by the Elliott Carter Concerto for Orchestra with the New York PO. Alas, I was but a youth in those days and the RAH might as well have been on the Moon but that's one I would have liked to have attended.

I was present in 1987 at a wonderful Gurrelieder with the National Youth Orchestra. Later years include Proms with the VPO (1992) and Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester (1997) both very fine.

Alas, my last sighting of PB was at that disappointing 2008 Janacek Prom.

[Chris Newman]

Pierre Boulez was a very late convert to Janacek. I have heard Charles Mackerras won him over and he has tried to make up for lost time. Patrice Chereau and Boulez gave a much admired/hated version of the Ring at Bayreuth. On TV I loved it. They came togetherfour years ago for Janacek's From the House of the Dead and scored a huge hit. I have to say that drama and opera are really Boulez's forte and the recording made from the production is very fine. I think PB wanted to succeed with the Glagolitic but even this pantheistic view of God eluded him. It was a brave attempt.

[gurnemanz]

I enjoyed his Parsifal over two nights in 1972, standing in the arena (near to a seated Bernard Levin, I recall)

[Chris Newman]

That Parsifal was good; most of the cast were terrific. It was just as well that it was spread over two nights though. The Gurnemanz (Louis Hendrikx) had little voice left on the first night but was very good next night. My first Parsifal was Reggie Goodall a couple of years before. The Gurnemanz that night was a last minute replacement - Gottlob Frick: wonderful and he had retired for two years.

Goodall and Boulez were linked by a fabulous Parsifal: Jess Thomas.

[makropulos]

I really miss Pierre at the Proms.

How much more gripping his La Valse would have been, for example.

Please post any memories of past Boulez Proms.

Or devise some hypothetical ones.

Oh - there are a lot of memories!
La Mer with the NYO in 1971
Bluebeard's Castle and the Schoenberg Piano Concerto (with Brendel) in the same season.
Boulez's own "explosante fixe", Mother Goose and three movements from Messiaen's Turangalila at a concert in 1973
A number of Proms in 1974:
Gurrelieder - a concert that completely blew my socks off.
Two days later: Debussy's Images, Schubert's 3rd Symph and Alan Hacker playing the Mozart (basset-)clarinet concerto
Bartók Concerto for Orchestra
Petrushka and L'heure espagnole
Bartok Village Scenes, Ravel Valses nobles, Messiaen Poemes pour Mi and Stravinsky Les Noces all in one (amazing) concert
Mahler 2
A couple of years later:
Jessye Norman singing the Liebestod, the Webern Passacaglia and a complete Daphnis et Chloe, in the same concert (1977)
Boulez Ritual and Mahler 7th

This could go on and on. But for obvious reasons I really miss PB at the Proms too - especially in the repertoire where he excels (alas, not Janacek...)

[Alison]

Some excellent memories here. I would love to have been around when he was the helm
of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Is he an unflinching admirer of Messiaen or does he avoid certain works in the concert hall ??

[Chris Newman]

Some excellent memories here. I would love to have been around when he was the helm
of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Is he an unflinching admirer of Messiaen or does he avoid certain works in the concert hall ??

He does not seem to have done any Messiaen at the Proms since his time as Chief Conductor of the BBCSO except for an Et Expecto a few years back. In his hayday he seemed to concentrate on the pieces from the 50s and 60s.

The dates of the following are composition dates of works he has recorded that I could find in a quick search.
Chronochromie ("Time-colour"), orchestra (1959–60)
Sept haïkaï ("Seven haikus"), solo piano and orchestra (1962)
Couleurs de la cité céleste ("Colours of the Celestial City"), solo piano and ensemble (1963)
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum ("And I look forward to the resurrection of the dead"), wind, brass and percussion (1964)

He only conducted three movements of Turangalila at the Proms.