For its 50th anniversary, the Ensemble intercontemporain has invited fifty composers to create a collective work together, built around the "convulsive beauty" prophesied by André Breton. A composite mosaic, with Philippe Manoury as project lead.

In 1937, in L'Amour fou, André Breton wrote that convulsive beauty would be veiled-erotic, fixed-explosive, and magical-circumstantial, or would not exist at all. In 1972, Pierre Boulez took up this phrase. Starting from a small original sketch written in homage to Stravinsky, …explosante-fixe…, which went through several successive versions, embodies the Boulezian art of musical proliferation and deduction.

Program

Œuvre collective Cinquante Regards sur la beauté - Premiere 2026
50 min of premieres without electonics
Pierre Boulez …explosante-fixe…

Distribution

Sophie Cherrier MIDI flute
Emmanuelle Ophèle, Marion Ralincourt flutes
Ensemble intercontemporain
Pierre Bleuse conductor
Philippe Manoury dramaturgy
Augustin Muller IRCAM electronic
Jérémie Henrot IRCAM sound diffusion

In partnership with IRCAM-Centre Pompidou/La Philharmonie de Paris.