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Pierre Boulez: '... explosante-fixe ...'

With Sophie Cherrier, Dagmar Becker, Anne Romeis (flutes), SWR Experimental Studio electronics and the SWR SO Baden-Baden and Freiburg conducted by Fran莽ois-Xavier Roth.

With Sophie Cherrier, Dagmar Becker, Anne Romeis (flutes), SWR Experimental Studio electronics and the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, conducted by Francois-Xavier Roth.

With its title remembered from Andr茅 Breton 鈥 on the need for beauty to be a 鈥榝ixed exploding鈥 鈥 the musical blueprint that Boulez created as a memorial to Stravinsky in 1971 has itself exploded in several different directions, generating works as different as Anth猫mes for solo violin, the orchestral Rituel and, as the definitive 鈥樷 explosante-fixe 鈥︹, this electronic flute concerto.

Instrumental-electronic interplay had always been part of the 鈥樷 explosante-fixe 鈥︹ project; a version from the mid-1970s featured eight modulated instruments but was set aside until the composer had time to work on the piece at IRCAM with the flautist Larry Beauregard. Beauregard鈥檚 early death, in 1985, led Boulez to suspend the idea, after first writing a preliminary version, M茅moriale, in the young musician鈥檚 memory. Finally, in 1991鈥3, he produced the present score, for solo flute plus a chamber orchestra.

While his other large-scale IRCAM piece R茅pons, with its electronic percussion team and wind-string orchestra, exulted in contrast, 鈥樷 explosante-fixe 鈥︹ can inhabit borderlands of likeness. The two companion flutes can shadow the soloist particularly closely; other instruments come more or less near.

Duration:

34 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Composer Pierre Boulez
Conductor Fran莽ois鈥怷avier Roth
Orchestra Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra
Performer Sophie Cherrier

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