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MUSIC PREVIEW
Boulez 2000
Leading musical thinker looks back at the 20th century
’If you want to go into an institution and change something, you’ve got to work from the inside,’ says Pierre Boulez, the acclaimed conductor and musical theorist. ’I don’t necessarily have to direct Tosca or Tchaikovsky which are produced often enough by other people, but I still feel Webern, Stravinsky and Schoenberg, in particular, are necessary and useful.’
The classical music industry's timidity towards the avant-garde has a lot to do with musicians who are only interested in promoting themselves in an attractive light. They rarely dare to perform the contemporary repertoire, because they aren’t properly trained to play such delicate work. They play safe and, inevitability, that means Chopin or Beethoven, not Schoenberg.
Boulez wants to use his role as a doyen of the European music scene to help younger composers. ’If there is a role for me, then it’s that,’ he says. It’s certainly true of the Edinburgh programme of concerts for his 75th birthday tour with the London Symphony Orchestra. The four concerts in the Boulez 2000 series combine classical composers of the modern era - among them Stravinsky, Boulez and Bartok - with premieres of four composers - George Benjamin, Salvatore Sciarrino, Olga Neuwirth and Peter Eotvo's -
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Pierre Boulez makes connections in the 20th century canon
But in Clinamen/Nodus (performed 26 August), her composition for strings, percussion and celesta, she matches the intensity and vehemence of Berg's orchestral pieces. Especially impressive is her inventive use of percussion; not only traditional drums, but anvil, gong, whips, zither and the loud roar of the percussionists themselves, producing gruff, harsh, abrupt effects and shrill distortions.
But to hear Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 conducted by Boulez is the real event of the concert series. This
who not only represent four different musical styles but, in their differences, seem to encapsulate both the range of sound and the open-ended possibilities for the orchestra in contemporary music.
But it's not diversity for its own sake. The new pieces have been carefully ordered for these performances. The young Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth, for example, was told not to use wind-instruments in her Clinamen/Nodus, because their dominating role in the works of Alban Berg (Three Pieces Op.6) and Gustav Mahler (Symphony No. 6 In A Minor) would be quite sufficient for anyone in one evening.
opulent piece is a highlight in the work of Mahler, a predecessor of the modern era who sat at the final point of the great symphonic tradition. In the scherzo, Boulez goes to the very limits of vacillations of speed and dynamic, seeming to anticipate structural elements of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. The splendour of the andante is in its decorum, while the finale is sheer fulmination, maturity and lavishness of sound. It is here that the symphonic ideas of the 19th century come to their overwhelming end. (Rolf C. Hemke)
k: Boulez 2000 (International) Usher Hall, 473 2000, 24—28 Aug, times vary, £5—f3l.
BOOK PREVIEW
Tama Janowitz
Social satire from New York author
'Only in New York do you see this particular species of American women who are so perfect in a blonde, Armani way. I wanted to look beneath the veneer and see what makes these women tick,’ says New York based satirist Tama Janownz. Cutting to the core of New York somety for nearly twenty years now, Janownz caused a literary sensation in the mid-80s with her second novel, Slaves Of New York and her latest release, A Certain Age, once again reveals the insecurities beneath the power-playing facade.
Single and panicking, the protagonist of Janowntz’s latest, Florence Collins, is looking for love in all the wrong places. Her hapless pursurt of a husband suggests that women’s preoccupations have changed little since Jane Austen's time, and Janownz herself is keen to stress the downfall of the feminist
movement in New York. 'I find it appalling having grown up as part of the women’s movement to see that women still see marriage as leading to fulfilment. This wanting a man and it becoming an obsession for women is very frightening'
Essentially a savage morality tale, A Certain Age has been extremely well received and compared to the works of New York’s finest satirists, Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald. While Janowitz sees her appearance at this year's Book Festival as the ideal opportunity to promote her latest work, she Will also be reading from her preVious novels, thus giVing Edinburgh audiences a retrospective of her acclaimed New York satire. (Catherine Bromley)
-,,, Tama Janowitz (Book Festival) The Spiege/tent, Charlotte Square, 624 5050, 24 Aug 7.30pm, [7.50 ([5 50).
The highlights of mid evening.
Autoboosh
Julian Barrat and Noel Fielding bring their particular brand of bizarre character humour to the Fringe with a new Boosh — this time involving transport difficulties. Autoboosh (Fringe) The Boosh, P/easance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 28 Aug (not 22), 7.30pm, f8.50/£9.50
(7. 50/£8.50).
God Show
American comedian Paul Wagner brings character comedy to the Fringe in a bewildering and hilarious satire of American life. A new face in Britain, Wagner looks likely to go far. See him while he’s still fresh. God Show (Fringe) Pau/ Wagner, Club P/easance @ Potterow (Venue 23) 556 6550, until 28 Aug (not 27) 7.30pm, £7.50/f850 (£6.50/f7.50).
A Lump In My Throat
John Diamond’s account of his life with throat cancer is performed by Robert Katz. Moving and humorous by turns, this play overwhelms one’s inhibitions about its gloomy subject matter. A Lump In My Throat (Fringe) Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, until 28 Aug, 6pm, £9/f 70 (£8/f 9).
Naked For Dinner
Prepare for a truly weird evening. Not for all taste buds, this, but if you’re game for adventure and good food, come to an event which has you blindfolded among a group of equally visually impaired folk, eating dinner in a darkened room. Some rough edges, but great ideas. Naked For Dinner (Fringe) 29b Walker Street (Venue 779) 226 5738, until 20 Aug, 7.30pm, £70 ([8).
New York City Ballet
The company that George Ballanchine formed so many years ago continues to do his memory credit. Atheleticism and an American spirit combine with a flair for classical ballet. New York City Ballet (International) Edinburgh Playhouse, 4 73 2000, until Sat 79 Aug, 7.30pm, f5—[37. Matinee 79Aug, 2.30pm.
17—24 Aug 2000 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 37