Austria Salzburg Competition 2025 [4] – Debussy, Boulez, and Stravinsky: Tamara Stefanovich, Nenad Lečić (pianos), Jörg Widmann (clarinet), SWR Experimentalstudio, Michael Acker, Maurice Oeser (sound course). Grosser Saal, Mozarteum, Salzburg, 20.8.2025. (MB)
Debussy (arr. Bavouzet) – Jeux. Poème dansé
Boulez – Dialogue de l’ombre double; Piano Sonata No.2
Stravinsky – Concerto for 2 pianos
Essentially the most radical of Debussy’s orchestral works, maybe probably the most radical of all Debussy’s works, Jeux held a particular place in Boulez’s conducting repertory. He even served as Myriam Chimènes’s co-editor for this instalment within the important version, incorporating a number of of the revisions Debussy made following the 1913 premiere. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s transcription for 2 pianos, revealed in 2005 and taking on the reminiscence of a misplaced model Debussy talked about in a letter to his writer, was given right here with additional modifications from the performers, Tamara Stefanovich and Nenad Lečić.
One piano (Lečić), then the opposite, then two pianos, shortly dissolving into the sound of 1, equally swift in sonic reinstatement as two: this introduced totally different, a minimum of equal challenges to the performers because the magically elusive orchestral rating. At instances, pitch appeared to achieve a sure precedence amongst parameters (as Boulez’s technology would know them) however different substitutes, enhances, and contrasts vied for place too, not least the fascinating distinction between piano contact and orchestral timbre. It flickered in several methods, inevitably sounding nearer to the piano works, each solo and En blanc et noir, in some methods akin to a steady suite of études. The narrative was there too, although, each intimately and temper, usually insouciant, typically languorous, infinitely malleable, at all times unhurried, but exact and directed (if neither in a Boulezian nor a Beethovenian approach). Seemingly as overflowing with melody as a piece by Schoenberg, the piece and its harmonies may barely have registered extra irresistibly in a efficiency each responsive and responsorial (to borrow from the Boulezian future). Sly, ineffable seduction led to a nonchalant closing shrug as completely ready because it was delivered.
Dialogue de l’ombre double was devoted to Berio for his sixtieth birthday, coinciding exactly with that of Boulez, in 1985, thus neatly combining this yr’s two nice musical centenaries. Though the newest efficiency will well-nigh inevitably stand freshest in a single’s thoughts, I believe I can safely say I’ve by no means heard a greater efficiency than that from Jörg Widmann, doubling along with his recorded self, courtesy of Michael Acker and Maurice Oeser of the SWR Experimentalstudio (one other necessary Boulez hyperlink). In some methods – it will probably in all probability solely ever be some – it might even have been probably the most devoted to Boulez’s conception, originating in Paul Claudel’s Le Soulier de satin wherein a double shadow of the central pair Rodrigue and Prouhèze is projected onto a wall, but absolutely additionally impressed by Antonin Artaud’s thought of the glimpse of uncorrupted actuality afforded by theatre’s ‘double’, and certainly to the ‘double’ variation type of the French eighteenth century, as effectively. because the doubling and shadowing within the relationships of labor/composer and efficiency/performer attribute of all notated music.
All have been definitely current, from the lighting that created Widmann’s silhouette on the wall to the continuation of Jeux’s responsorial two-piano components with new means, reworking within the corridor round us, greater than hinting on the work’s relationship to Boulez’s personal Répons. There have been surprises too, such because the plunge into darkness at the start, the primary notes we heard being the double somewhat than Widmann, who will need to have come on the stage throughout these magical first arabesques. Maybe one may see him, maybe not; my thoughts’s eye and ear have been rightly elsewhere. Endless melody, punctuated and structured in extremely seen in addition to audible type, created a type of music theatre that but remained above all music.
Stefanovich and Lečić returned to the stage after the interval for an additional excellent two-piano efficiency, this time of Stravinsky’s Concerto for 2 pianos: not probably the most Boulez-friendly Stravinsky, and thus arguably all of the extra welcome on this context. Scènes de ballet might need been provocative; this, the extra one listened, was considerate and productive, complementing in addition to contrasting, regardless of the two composers might need thought (or mentioned). It will make an enchanting companion piece to Constructions sooner or later, maybe alongside Stockhausen’s Mantra — Mozart or Schubert too. Its quietly ferocious regularity – ‘who me? igniting a debate?’ – made for a gap distinction of equal intelligence and wonder, not least within the chiaroscuro of this efficiency. The primary motion’s stunning but plain approaches to Shostakovich registered with startling readability, after which Stravinsky pulled one other rabbit out of the hat, then one other…
A lot may very well be realized – in my case, was – from easy observance of the pianists’ physique language and once more that responsorial high quality. The hollowed-out high quality of Stravinsky’s tonality shone keenly, even overtly within the second motion. On the similar time, so did its undeniably ‘Russian’ roots, as an example in Petrushka. The ultimate two actions, more and more concerned, supplied ever extra radical complement and improvement the extra intently one listened. There was play too, in fact, classes slyly undermined as quickly as they have been established. Maybe this was not so distant from Boulez, even from his Second Piano Sonata, as we’d have imagined.
Thus to Stefanovich’s thrilling, astounding climax. I’ve heard effective performances of this work however none finer. Certainly, I believe it might effectively have been probably the most all-encompassing, purple in tooth and claw, white in warmth, and each desolate and bracing in quite a few aftershocks, I’ve heard, whether or not reside or on report. The work’s magnificence and violence have been dialectically current from the opening of the primary motion. How Stefanovich had the piano yield, melodically and nonetheless extra harmonically, introduced a stunning but welcome contact of Brahms (maybe by way of the unstable ‘mannequin’ of Beethoven). Phrasing too was simply as essential — and revealing, each bit as a lot in order in Mozart or Beethoven. Artaud was extra palpably, viscerally to the fore than within the Dialogue: ‘organised delirium’ (the title each for Caroline Potter’s latest research for Boydell and for Stefanovich’s nonetheless newer Pentatone CD tribute: seize each!) As Messiaen recalled his younger pupil, ‘like a lion that had been flayed alive’, so not solely was the work, not solely was the efficiency, however so have been we in viewers response. There was a quasi-religious fervour to a hearth that additionally signalled Beethovenian concision (the Fifth Symphony’s first motion, as an example). It was over earlier than we knew, but remained with us.
If the primary motion in some sense ready us for the second – the primary second of aftershock – it additionally couldn’t, given the brand new paths taken. Given the large challenges of communication, Stefanovich’s command of line proved near unbelievable. It constructed on unerring energy and a way of ‘rightness’, that it couldn’t be in any other case. Probably it may very well be; there are at all times alternate options. Within the second, although, one ought to (usually) really feel in any other case. The third motion, unsurprisingly given its earlier origin, linked most clearly with Boulez’s earlier piano music, but solely as a place to begin. As soon as once more, the readability and course of what we heard, work and efficiency, was hanging. Reconstruction and annihilation on seemingly countless, but quickly ended, repeat have been the hallmark of the fourth motion, a minimum of its starting, abruptly — and but with Mozartian readability. Ever reworking, ever bewitching, it stretched thoughts and ears, inviting them to repay the praise. It scalded, it froze, liquid extremes imparting simultaneous life and demise. The ultimate, plain aftershock supplied, if not peace, then a way of human spirit in diversified abundance.
Mark Berry
Featured Picture: Jörg Widmann (clarinet) © SF/Marco Borrelli
