Boulez, Maderna, Stockhausen
Monday, August 4, 2025
Royal Albert Hall, London
Courtesy of the Brothers Grimm, the Mahler (‘Song of Lamentation’ – fratricide, wedding revelries, a flute made of bone, a castle that crumbles to nothing) is early, by an eighteen-/nineteen-year-old composer already pointing the way to later opuses, Symphony No.1 especially, originally in three parts, revised twice, until he dropped ‘Waldmärchen’ (the first and longest section). Pierre Boulez recorded the revision twice (CBS/Sony, then DG), and also the discarded opener as a separate project (CBS). These days it’s not unusual to restore the half-hour ‘Waldmärchen’, as here, a mostly ravishing setting that hung fire somewhat despite Hannu Lintu’s consideration, and finely sung and played. Whether Part Two contrasts sufficiently musically with its predecessor is another moot point, if again the senses are enchanted, and a felicitous rendition appreciated, with Part Three of greater momentum and dimension (off-stage musicians) reflecting something inexplicable, added to by the fossil-related otherworldly timbres of an alto and a treble (and very good they were too), the seventy-minute work ending with an unfollowable bang similar to that bringing the curtain down on the Seventh Symphony.
Beforehand, Boulez’s tribute to a friend, Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna, a composer-conductor colleague (1920-73). Rituel (first-performed in 1975) is scored for eight groups of various instruments each with a percussionist (drums, gongs, cymbals, wood, marking time) for a musical monument of linearity and clarity, ceremonial in effect, of steady pulse if ever-elaborate above it until the opening economy returns. Lintu conducted a Finnish Radio performance in February (below), taking twenty-five minutes, close-enough to Boulez himself; at Royal Albert Hall, this meticulous reading, spatial (an aspect aided by the venue) yet integrated, took twenty-seven, which seems ideal, as Michael Gielen’s recording similarly demonstrates (also below) in a score that has staying power, its appeal as potent now as it initially was fifty years ago.
Natalya Romaniw (soprano)
Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)
Russell Thomas (tenor)
James Newby (baritone)
Carlos González Nápoles treble
Malakai Bayoh alto
Constanza Chorus
BBC Symphony Chorus
“Das klagende Lied, Mahler’s musical coming-of-age, is a chilling fable of jealousy, murder and magic. An eerie woodland and a lively wedding ceremony are the centrepieces of a cantata of vast sonic imagination – a foretaste of the symphonies to come, heard here in its original three-part version.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ggfd
Opening trumpet solo played by Gilbert Johnson.
BBC Symphony Orchestra; March 1971.