This recording of Pli selon Pli may be considered definitive. Pierre Boulez worked on this massive composition from 1957 to 1989, and over those years issued different versions and recordings of the work in progress. Don" and "Improvisation sur Mallarmé III" have been extensively rewritten and are heard here in their final form. Soprano Christine Schäfer's expertise with avant-garde vocal techniques holds her in good stead. Her performance - at times the center of attention, at others an embellishment on the instrumental proceedings - is flexible and well-suited to the music's changing demands.

Pli Selon Pli - Portrait de Mallarmé: No. 2 - Improvisation I sur Mallarmé (1958/62) le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui. Christine Schäfer, Pierre Boulez & Ensemble InterContemporain. 3. Pli Selon Pli - Portrait de Mallarmé: No. 3 - Improvisation II sur Mallarmé (1957) une dentelle s'abolit. 4. 4 - Improvisation III sur Mallarmé (1959/84) à la nue accablante tu.

Album · 2002 · 5 Songs. Pli selon Pli, Portrait de Mallarmé: No. 2, Improvisation I sur Mallarmé (Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui). 3, Improvisation II sur Mallarmé (Une dentelle s'abolit).

This album has an average beat per minute of 98 BPM (slowest/fastest tempos: 63/177 BPM). See its BPM profile at the bottom of the page. Ensemble Intercontemporain feat. conductor: Pierre Boulez). Pli selon Pli (Ensemble Intercontemporain feat. conductor: Pierre Boulez, soprano: Christine Schäfer).

Pli Selon Pli (Fold by Fold) is a portrait of Mallarmé, whose poems are set in fragmented fashion throughout the work's five movements, which Boulez rewrote and added to until they assumed final form in 1989. His 1969 Sony recording had an icy, frozen surface and a general air of impenetrability. Textures are more finely drawn; the delicate colorations of winds and plucked instruments, including a mandolin, are more sensuous; and a traditional French sensibility is more obvious. The crack instrumentalists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain are masters of Boulez's style, and it's hard to imagine a better performance of this modernist milestone.

Pierre Boulez: Pli selon Pli. Christine Schäfer, Ensemble Intercontemporain. Pierre Boulez - The Complete Columbia Album Collection. Pierre Boulez, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain. Alban Berg Collection.

Ensemble intercontemporain, Paris.