[.ca] Ameriques/Arcana/Deserts/Ionis

From Amazon.com:
Pierre Boulez's Sony recordings of Varèse's music long ruled the roost until Riccardo Chailly's complete set with the Concertgebouw for Decca. This Chicago remake, for all its precise orchestral playing, doesn't challenge either of them. Both the Sony Boulez and Decca Chailly have a sense of enthusiasm and a feeling for the wildness with which these avant-garde works burst upon the scene in the 1920s. Amériques, for example, should knock your socks off, with its sirens piercing through the orchestral textures, but they're relatively tame on this expansive reading, in which Boulez seems to lavish more affection on the quiet opening section. Déserts is also more measured than it should be, the resulting precision bought at the cost of intensity. Virtually anything Boulez conducts is worth hearing, and this disc certainly reveals much about the scores, but hopes that this master of modern music would top his earlier recording aren't fulfilled. --Dan Davis

Amazon.fr:
Qui mieux que Pierre Boulez peut avec une telle acuité passer l'œuvre orchestrale de Varèse au peigne fin ? Rien ne lui échappe : il fouille chaque ligne, chaque trait, jusqu'à ce que se dégage une logique interne qui lui sied. D'une certaine manière, le chef français dépèce les partitions, à force d'une analyse frénétique qui frise la dissection chirurgicale. Mais quelle aération du tissu ! Quel émerveillement devant tant d'allègement, qui redonne à ces œuvres, pourtant réputées complexes, une simplicité quasi virginale. Difficile d'imaginer interprétation plus idiomatique que celle-ci. Un sommet. --Pierre Guillaume

an antidote to Chailly:
Riccardo Chailly's recording of the original version of Ameriques was something that all Varese-lovers were hungrily waiting to hear. Featuring much extra brass and wind and such exotica as steamboat whistle and crow call, the score is sonically quite different to the 1927 revision in which also the central part of the work is substantially recomposed. I think most Varese-lovers would agree that the 1927 version of the score is superior to the the original: the quotations from other composers (Stravinsky, Schoenberg et al) seem to break the culmulative tensions of the work and the off-stage brass doesn't really seem to add that much more to a work that is already sonically light years ahead of its time. Moreover, I find the Decca recording problematic in several respects: textures are often thick and muddied, internal detail often gets lost especially with some of Chailly's over-fast tempi, the basslines are often not clear enough and the percussion just don't register in all their incredible variety. Boulez knows this score well. He knows that every detail needs to be heard. He knows that the power and sheer inexorability of the final section of the work (truly one the most AMAZING climaxes in all music) comes over best with a steady and very precise rhythm. The great crashes on timpani and bass drum are spectacular in Boulez' new recording; compare with Chailly and you'll hear what I mean; everything kind of gets lost in the stew. Boulez also gives the strings their prominence so we can finally appreciate all of Varese's innovations in his writing for these instruments. In Arcana, Boulez's speeds are, once again, slightly broader than on his earlier recording. An emphasis on clarity and detail lets us hear the score anew- how fabulous is it to not have the piece played like a 50's sci-fi soundtrack or The Rite of Spring part II. Boulez' authority in Deserts cannot be questioned; maybe I'm a little ambivalent about the electronic interpolations being left out here, but I guess they are comprimised by the limitations of the master and therefore seriously 'date' the piece. Only Ionisation is probably better with Chailly- the ASKO Ensemble seem to relish the piece more than the percussionists of the CSO and there are some moments of questionable ensemble. (interestingly they were also there in Boulez' NYP recording) But stick with Boulez in the big works, he does them full justice.

Varese in context:
The editorial review and some others rather miss the point of Boulez' recording. Boulez, a French composer and conductor, interprets Varese, a French-born composer whose work begins just after Debussy's death, as a colorist in the manner of the older composer. This makes historical sense. The vulgar and exaggerated displays of noise in most earlier recordings can make Varese seem hysterical. But Boulez allows us to view these works as the post-Debussy coloristic masterpieces they are, crafted with great care as to nuance and balance of sound. Boulez gives us a vision of Varese reborn without all the excessive clanging and banging and sirening that usually overshadow his most inventive, influential, and (please notice) subtle music. This is a welcome CD issue.

Sounds magnificent:
I have Boulez's earlier Sony recording of the Varese but I haven't listened to it in a while so I can't compare it to this. I bought this mainly to hear what the Chicago Symphony sounds like these days (as it turns out, this was recorded in 1995 (Ameriques, Ionisation) and 1996 (Arcana, Deserts), so it isn't as current as I'd hoped). To me, what Varese is all about is the magnificent sounds that an orchestra can make and this recording delivers the goods. I guess the critics don't like this performance that much, but I don't sense a lack of excitement without other records I've heard over the years fresh in my mind, and I find the recording so luminous, dynamic, and crystal clear that I can't help recommending it without reserverations. After all, Varese IS about SOUNDS and this recording has them in spades.

A must have...:
... togheter with Chaillys version because you have two different versions then and I mean not differnt because of conductor only. I mean Vareses longer or shorter verason of "Ameriques". This is the shorter version but both is great music and I dont want to live without none of them. Boulez and Chally is both of them great at this in their own way.

• Ameriques
• Arcana
• Deserts
• Ionisation