Zondagochtendmuziek - Pierre Boulez - Répons, INSOMNIO cond. Ulrich Pöhl

Als onderdeel van de Gaudeamus Muziekweek en de 42nd International Computer Music Conference speelde Het Insomnio Ensemble vrijdag in Utrecht tijdens het TivoliVredenburg lunchpauzeconcert. Op het programma stonden twee werken van Pierre Boulez en een van Stylianos Dimou.

Na afloop vond een medebezoekster dat het "anders dan anders" was geweest. En ja, dat was het. Juist daarom denk ik dat het mij wel boeide. Maar muziek om te omhelzen was het bepaald niet.

Hier speelt Insomnio een ander werk van Boulez: Répons. De première daarvan was op 5 maart 1986 in New York. De recensent van de New York Times schreef er dit over:

The processor took in the sounds, changed them in timbre, volume and other ways and regurgitated the results, sending altered sounds whirling about the hall by means of what seemed to be dozens of strategically placed loudspeakers. No sound was left unamplified or untransformed, and yet the results soon became completely predictable and monotonous. Répons began in semidarkness, but about seven minutes into the performance the house lights came up suddenly, along with the loudness level. This offered some theatrical promise, but nothing else so dramatic happened all evening. The familiar Boulez style of composing, with its spasmodic gasps and lurches, did not permit much variety, even though the amplified sounds that issued from various corners of the hall could sometimes be savored as purely acoustical events. The work, however, simply went on and on to no purpose that I could discern. At odd moments it was superficially stimulating in the way a cold shower can be, but as music it added up to little more than a series of unconnected tone clusters, arpeggios and pedal notes.... However rigorous its plan and structure may be–and no one doubts Mr. Boulez's ability to construct a score of great logical beauty–its effect was oddly random. Répons was a bath of sound, too long drawn out to be really invigorating. Perhaps at 10 or 15 minutes it might have kept one's attention better, but that is conjecture.

"Het werk ging echter eenvoudigweg verder en zonder enig doel dat ik kon bespeuren." Dat was precies het gevoel dat ik vrijdag zo nu en dan ook had. En toch boeide dat.