Boulez and Berio: 20th-Century Giants @ The BBC Proms

Luciano Berio
Sequenza V

Pierre Boulez
Dialogue de l’ombre double

Luciano Berio
Recital I (for Cathy)

Lucas Ounissi – trombone
Jérôme Comet – clarinet
Sarah Aristidou – soprano

IRCAM
Yann Brécy – electronics
Sylvain Cadars sound diffusion

Ensemble intercontemporain

Pierre Bleuse

On a darkened stage, a lone trombonist, dressed as a clown, lumbered on the Royal Albert Hall stage, with outsize shoes, frock coat and orange curly wig. So starts Luciano Berio’s tribute to the Swiss clown, Grock (Charles Adrien Wettach) who once lived next to Berio’s family home. It set out Berio as the entertainer using his music as theatre, later developed in his Recital I (for Cathy) that was to end this concert. For now, it was trombonist Lucas Ounissi who took the plaudits for his witty – and (as befits a clown) melancholy – performance.

Next Pierre Boulez at perhaps his most theatrical, in a work he dedicated to almost exact contemporary, Berio – both would have been 100 this year. Boulez’s Dialogue de l’ombre double for clarinet and electronics has been something of a Boulez hit this centenary year – this is the third performance I’ve attended. Tonight’s was certainly the most involving, with IRCAM in charge of the sound projection and live electronics and the pre-recorded sections plunged into almost complete darkness, melding beautifully into Jérôme Comte’s live segments as he moved from stand to stand across the Royal Albert Hall stage and ended up high stage right with his back to the Arena. Given the nature of the work with what segments to play in what order determined by the player, every single performance is unique, and the crepuscular setting made it (appositely) doubly so.

And so, to the longest work, and perhaps the most intractable or, at less, indescribable. Written for his then wife, Cathy Barbarian, Recital I (for Cathy) follows the descent into madness of a soprano giving a recital with recalcitrant accompanist.  There’s mime, play acting, somewhat pantomime gesturing and – typically Berio – a whole host of snippets from earlier composers (starting with Monteverdi), here with most of the 18 members of the Ensemble intercontemporain skewed to stage left and conductor Pierre Bleuse almost in the stalls. I can only imagine the rehearsal time put in to produce such a perfectly realised performance, spotlighting the vocal and acting talents of Proms debutante Sarah Aristidou who threw herself into the singer’s role.  Almost impossible to comprehend fully at one viewing, ideally, we could have had an immediate repeat, but with the clock pressing at 11.40pm, it was time for the small, but gratefully enthusiastic audience to head into the night to get home.

It was a joy to see the Ensemble intercontemporain back at the Proms – its first visit (of seven) in nine years. As one of France’s most esteemed performing groups, so connected to both its founder Boulez and to an early collaborator, Berio, it was perfectly placed to celebrate both would-have-been centenarians at the Proms.  Come back soon.