Pierre Boulez had plenty to say when I was working on his music under his guidance some 25 years ago. On both smaller and larger issues, many of his comments have stayed firmly in my mind. In our sessions in Paris, Cleveland, and La Grave—a picturesque town in the French Alps—he was friendly and even disarmingly complimentary while offering guidance on the delivery of appoggiaturas. He spoke about the cool wildness of his piano works, demonstrated organic phrasing, and advised me to carefully weigh dynamic and rhythmic contrasts. But the most profound concept he imparted was something he called "the power of an idea." He emphasized the importance of the performer in projecting and giving emphasis to this idea. It was surprising—I had expected the so-called "high priest of modernism" to be mostly concerned with details and precision. Instead, it was a healthy, even comforting reminder that music, if we simply allow it to, will do its own work.
Boulez rehearsing with the pianist Roger Woodward for a BBC Symphony Orchestra concert in 1972
Boulez’s thinking—complex yet always clear and elegant—was inspiring. I understood his critical attitude towards music, including his own, as stemming from a deep belief that music could truly reflect the infinite complexities of life itself. His musical education was Schoenbergian, but even as a young man, he sought models beyond music. Boulez aspired to achieve in sound what Kandinsky and Klee had done in visual art and what Kafka, Joyce, and Musil had done in literature. And he did.
While his work was labyrinthine and highly structured, Boulez’s project was fundamentally aesthetic. He had no hesitation in withdrawing his own works, even successful ones, if he deemed them too schematic or overly concerned with theoretical concepts. In his writings, he spoke of form as an enabler—a necessary structure within which musical ideas could develop organically, taking on a life and freedom of their own. If music was to reflect human subconsciousness, as he believed it should, then mechanical rhythm, in his view, was an erroneous path.
His attitude—a kind of critical optimism—is what I believe we must bring to all our music-making, whether performing Rameau, Mozart, Stravinsky, or the contemporary composers of today. It is in this very spirit that we will celebrate Boulez’s music at ANAM this year. Like all music, Boulez’s work is bound in time. Yet he explored the very nature of time’s passing in fascinating ways through many of his deliberately unfinished or open-form works, one of which—the Third Sonata—we will present as part of our Boulez celebration on April 11 at ANAM.
For this celebration, it feels only natural to blend Boulez’s music with that of his older and younger colleagues. Even in his most rigorous compositions—where musical expression can verge on the violent—Boulez approached sound as a sensual and rapturous phenomenon. He cited Chopin as an inspiration, and one of the works stemming from that stimulus, Messagesquisse for seven cellos, is included in our program. Respectively, this connection has inspired us to pair Boulez’s piano works with Chopin’s Nocturnes, a challenge that ANAM’s pianists will undoubtedly embrace with great enthusiasm.
At ANAM, we take pride in performing a great deal of contemporary music. Our Boulez celebration presents a wonderful opportunity to showcase some of today’s voices, and we have selected three Melbourne-based composers whose works will alternate with chamber pieces by Boulez in the first part of our three-part celebration. An apex of the event will be a performance of Sur Incises, an electrifying work scored for three pianists, three percussionists, and three harpists. For this performance, we are delighted to welcome, alongside ANAM’s current musicians, some virtuoso alumni, as well as renowned experts in Boulez’s music, including the exceptional harpist Marshall McGuire and the formidable conductor Fabian Russell.
Before Boulez at ANAM on April 11, we will mark another milestone on March 21, when ANAM returns to the Melbourne Recital Centre with a full orchestral program after several years. One of the great conductors of our time, and a cherished collaborator from our many projects with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, maestro Asher Fisch, will bring his luminous personality and deeply inspiring artistry to lead us through a magnificent program reflecting on the passage of time.
This two-part gala concert will journey from 21st-century Western Europe and Australia to 19th-century Central Europe—an era rich in humanist ideals and nostalgic sensibility. The program features music by Johannes Brahms, Anna Clyne, and Lachlan Skipworth—composers who have listened to the echoes and reflections of the world and shaped them into magnificent sonic poems. The evening opens with Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour, a riveting work from a composer who has captivated the music world in recent years. Next, Skipworth’s Flute Concerto, featuring Andrew Nicholson as soloist, will receive its Melbourne premiere. And finally, the exhilarating Symphony No. 2 by Brahms will bring the evening to a thrilling close.
ANAM ORCHESTRA GALA CONCERT WITH ASHER FISCH
Friday 21 March 2025, 7pm
Anna CLYNE This Midnight Hour
Lachlan SKIPWORTH Flute Concerto (Victorian premiere)
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No. 2 in D Major, op. 73
Asher Fisch conductor
Andrew Nicholson flute
ANAM Orchestra
Venue Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre
Tickets Standard $85/$75, Senior/Under 30 $70/$60, Concession $60/$50, Child (under 15) $20
BOULEZ RULES!
Friday 11 Apr 2025, 6pm, 8pm, 10pm
Venue Rosina Auditorium, Abbotsford Convent
Tickets A Little Extra $60.00 Standard $40.00 A Little Less $20.00