0:00:29 > 0:00:33If modern classical music has a single living incarnation,
0:00:33 > 0:00:36it's surely the French composer and conductor,
0:00:36 > 0:00:3887-year-old Pierre Boulez.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43During the 2012 BBC Proms, a series of concerts featuring
0:00:43 > 0:00:47music by Boulez was programmed by conductor Daniel Barenboim
0:00:47 > 0:00:49and performed by members of his young orchestra,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52the West-Eastern Divan.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55In this programme, we're revisiting four of those performances
0:00:55 > 0:00:57of this scintillating, seductive music,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01starting with Messagesquisse.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04This is a miniature concerto for solo cello,
0:01:04 > 0:01:06backed by six other cellists.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09The music starts slowly with still, spectral sounds,
0:01:09 > 0:01:14before exploding into a virtuosic torrent of energy.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16It's a ten-minute musical thrill ride
0:01:16 > 0:01:19that gets hold of your ears and doesn't let go,
0:01:19 > 0:01:21and it's a huge technical challenge for the players,
0:01:21 > 0:01:25especially the solo cellist, Hassan Moataz el Molla,
0:01:25 > 0:01:27joining six other members of the cello section
0:01:27 > 0:01:31of the West-Eastern Divan orchestra, and conductor Daniel Barenboim
0:01:31 > 0:01:35to perform Messagesquisse by Pierre Boulez.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16APPLAUSE
0:12:25 > 0:12:30Pierre Boulez's Messagesquisse, for solo cello and six other cellists.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Six cellists from the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
0:12:32 > 0:12:36and their principal cellist, Hassan Moataz el Molla,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39performing that piece, astonishingly, from memory,
0:12:39 > 0:12:41conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55Hassan Moataz el Molla's feat in memorising that piece
0:12:55 > 0:12:58was something that amazed Pierre Boulez himself
0:12:58 > 0:13:00when Daniel Barenboim told him about it.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51LOUD CHEERING
0:13:58 > 0:14:01A year after Pierre Boulez wrote Messagesquisse, he opened IRCAM,
0:14:01 > 0:14:04the Institute for Research into Computer and Acoustic Music,
0:14:04 > 0:14:06under the streets of central Paris,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09and the next work we'll hear was composed there -
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Dialogue De L'Ombre Double - Dialogue Of The Double Shadow,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15for clarinet and its electronic double.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18To introduce it, here's tonight's soloist, principal clarinet
0:14:18 > 0:14:22of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Jussef Eisa.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25First of all, it is very difficult to play.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27I have to say, it was a lot of work.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32The technical passages are very intense and you have to work a lot.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37Aside from that, if you concentrate on the music, then it's...
0:14:37 > 0:14:39It's getting more and more interesting.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50This piece consists of six parts, in a way.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55It starts with a piece that I recorded. The second I play live.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58And the third is a recording. And so on and so on.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02The sound engineers, they change the volume of the speakers,
0:15:02 > 0:15:07and the sound is supposed to move through the hall,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09so that the audience is, like, kind of confused
0:15:09 > 0:15:13that sometimes it comes from this side and sometimes from that side.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16It's very interesting to hear what they do, actually.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28There's a piano behind the stage, and this piano, like,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32when I'm recorded, it's being projected into the piano
0:15:32 > 0:15:38and the pedal is pushed down, so the resonance in the piano,
0:15:38 > 0:15:42this sound also goes into the hall, which is very beautiful.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45A beautiful sound, in a way. Very nice colour.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52I think Boulez was inspired by a theatre piece,
0:15:52 > 0:15:57so while the recording is played, I'm in the dark.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01And when the recording stops, and I start playing,
0:16:01 > 0:16:04the stage is being lightened.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07It's part of the music, in a way, the staging.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14This music is like a very special speech, in a way.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19It has something like... Like meditation or something like that.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22It's sometimes very calm and sometimes it's rude,
0:16:22 > 0:16:26and all these different elements are...
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Yeah, are the special thing about it.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35APPLAUSE
0:35:51 > 0:35:55APPLAUSE
0:36:05 > 0:36:08Dialogue De L'ombre Double,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10Dialogue of the double shadow, By Pierre Boulez.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14It was performed by the principal clarinet of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra,
0:36:14 > 0:36:15Jussef Eisa, with electronics
0:36:15 > 0:36:22from Gilbert Nouno and Jeremie Henrot of Boulez's IRCAM in Paris.
0:36:24 > 0:36:32APPLAUSE CONTINUES
0:36:45 > 0:36:49Acoustic music for soloist and ensemble next.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51Memoriale is a piece dedicated to the memory
0:36:51 > 0:36:54of a brilliant young flautist, Lawrence Beauregard,
0:36:54 > 0:36:59but there are other reasons behind the title, as Pierre Boulez himself
0:36:59 > 0:37:03explained to conductor Mark Wigglesworth back in 1997.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07I have called it Memoriale for a different reason,
0:37:07 > 0:37:11because as you know, because you have conducted the piece,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14there are things which come back and come back,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17but irregularly. You have, for instance,
0:37:17 > 0:37:21an element which comes back as, element A, let's say,
0:37:21 > 0:37:23and then you have an element B, and then element A
0:37:23 > 0:37:26and element B come back, but you never know when, exactly.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31But you recognise them because they are, I think, characteristic enough.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33And then the memory works like that.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43I heard, you know, the sound on the violin that I've never heard before.
0:37:43 > 0:37:49And I asked the violinist, "What kind of mute did you have?"
0:37:49 > 0:37:52And he explained to me the practice mute.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54And then he played for me and I said,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56"Does it exist for other instruments?"
0:37:56 > 0:37:58He said, "Yes, for all strings.
0:37:58 > 0:38:00"It does exist."
0:38:00 > 0:38:04And I like this type, because of the colour of the sound,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07it is so changed. Especially if you have more than one.
0:38:17 > 0:38:22In the best French literature, you find always the flute very prominent.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Very prominent. Do not ask me why.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29Let's say for instance, pieces for flute alone,
0:38:29 > 0:38:33the most famous is Syrinx by Debussy, of course.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38But also, Debussy wrote for flute, violin and harp.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42Ravel wrote the Medecasse for flute, cello and piano.
0:38:42 > 0:38:47You know, the flute is very important in the French chamber literature.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50And I think I am one of them.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52APPLAUSE
0:38:54 > 0:38:58Memoriale is a miniature work, just five minutes long.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00It's performed tonight by the principal flute
0:39:00 > 0:39:03of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Guy Eshed, with eight players
0:39:03 > 0:39:07drawn from the orchestra with conductor Daniel Barenboim.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12APPLAUSE
0:45:23 > 0:45:25Memoriale by Pierre Boulez.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27It was performed there by flautist Guy Eshed,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31with eight other musicians of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
0:45:31 > 0:45:35under their founder and conductor, Daniel Barenboim.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38APPLAUSE CONTINUES
0:45:58 > 0:46:00CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:46:17 > 0:46:21Pierre Boulez has been an essential force in British musical life
0:46:21 > 0:46:22since the 1960s.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26He was chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and he's been
0:46:26 > 0:46:27a ceaseless explorer
0:46:27 > 0:46:31and experimenter as a composer and conductor.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35Without him, Proms audiences and audiences all over the world
0:46:35 > 0:46:38wouldn't have been exposed to 20th and 21st century repertoire.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41Everything from Mahler and Schoenberg to Stockhausen
0:46:41 > 0:46:45and Ligeti. And Boulez himself, of course.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49The final piece that we are going to hear is also the most recent.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53Anthemes II For Solo Violin And Live Electronics.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56It's music that's both ancient and modern.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59Its 20 minute structure relates to the psalms
0:46:59 > 0:47:01that Boulez heard in church as a boy,
0:47:01 > 0:47:05but the glittering sophistication of the electronics
0:47:05 > 0:47:07is definitively late 20th century.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10It's played by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's leader,
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Michael Barenboim, Daniel Barenboim's son.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19- Anthemes II, anthems two, by Pierre Boulez. - APPLAUSE
1:06:36 > 1:06:41APPLAUSE
1:06:48 > 1:06:53Pierre Boulez's Anthemes II, performed by Michael Barenboim,
1:06:53 > 1:06:55leader of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra,
1:06:55 > 1:06:59and son of the orchestra's founder and conductor, Daniel Barenboim.
1:06:59 > 1:07:01And those ethereal otherworldly electronics
1:07:01 > 1:07:05were from Gilbert Nouno and Jeremie Henrot of Boulez's IRCAM.
1:07:09 > 1:07:12APPLAUSE CONTINUES
1:07:12 > 1:07:15These four performances were all drawn from a series of concerts
1:07:15 > 1:07:18that the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performed at the Proms
1:07:18 > 1:07:22in the weeks running up to the opening of the 2012 London Olympics.
1:07:22 > 1:07:25They were a real highlight of recent Proms history
1:07:25 > 1:07:27in which Barenboim paired Boulez's music
1:07:27 > 1:07:29with a complete cycle of symphonies
1:07:29 > 1:07:32by the great radical of early 19th-century music,
1:07:32 > 1:07:34Ludwig von Beethoven.
1:07:34 > 1:07:37Boulez's music is still radical, for sure,
1:07:37 > 1:07:38but it also speaks
1:07:38 > 1:07:42a language that connects with 21st century audiences.
1:07:42 > 1:07:46At the Proms, the music proved more essential than ever.
1:08:00 > 1:08:04CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
1:08:10 > 1:08:13Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd