Around 2 hours
Boulez Anniversary
Répons opens the Pierre Boulez (1925-2025) anniversary year with powerful musical synthesis and theatrical dramaturgy, an iconic fusion of electronic and instrumental music, a dialogue between human and machine, a tour de force of persuasive rhetoric that unfolds like a spiral in the concert space.
Like the responsorial masterpieces of Gabrieli and Monteverdi, Répons creates a dialogue between the instrumental ensemble at the heart of the space and the six soloists placed around the periphery. Wielding live electronics with mastery and ingenuity, Boulez unites and entangles all the sonic protagonists in this Baroque whirlwind. Répons is a work deeply associated with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, some of whose former soloists return especially for this anniversary concert of their 1984 premiere.
Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano
Jean-Guihen Queyras cello
Ensemble intercontemporain
Pierre Bleuse conductor
Sophie Cherrier, Emmanuelle Ophèle flute
Hidéki Nagano, Dimitri Vassilakis piano
Gilles Durot, Samuel Favre percussions
Valeria Kafelnikov harp
Aurélien Gignoux cymbalum
Augustin Muller IRCAM electronics
Jérémie Henrot IRCAM sound diffusion
Pierre Boulez Mémoriale (…Explosante-fixe… Originel)
Pierre Boulez Messagesquisse
Claude Debussy En blanc et noir
Pierre Boulez Sonatine
Charlotte Bray New work, commissioned by the Ensemble intercontemporain with the support of the Fondation Pierre Boulez Premiere 2025
Pierre Boulez Répons