Prague Modern / Pascal Gallois GÉRARD GRISEY - FABIEN LÉVY

On this 2018 recording, Pascal Gallois conducts Prague Modern in performances of works by Gérard Grisey (1946-1998) and Fabien Lévy (b. 1968). Before addressing the compositions, some background on the three is warranted as their histories align. During the ‘90s, Gallois and Grisey were fellow instructors at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris, with Lévy a student in Grisey's composition course. Gallois's first encounter with him preceded that period, however. While performing in the Ensemble Intercontemporain in 1981 (having earlier graduated from the Conservatoire himself), Gallois was introduced to Grisey's Modulations (1976-77), which stunned him with its innovative techniques and use of microtonality. Recalling that experience, Gallois said, “I remember leaving the first rehearsal with a real enthusiasm and the feeling of having discovered a world that would leave its indelible mark on my life.”

Grisey, who studied with Messiaen and Dutilleux and attended seminars with Stockhausen, Ligeti, and Xenakis, studied electroacoustic music in the early ‘70s in Paris, was attached to IRCAM in 1980, taught at the University of California at Berkeley (1982-86), returned to teach at the Paris conservatory and give seminars in Europe before dying from a ruptured aneurysm in November 1998. Lévy, who like his one-time teacher developed an association with IRCAM (as pedagogical advisor from 1999-2000), lectured at the Sorbonne, taught composition at Columbia University in New York (2006-12), and currently teaches composition at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Germany. On the Prague Modern release, two pieces by Lévy precede Vortex Temporum (1996) by Grisey.

As a title, Querwüchsig, a German neologism formed from Quer (diagonal) and Wüchsig (to grow or sprout), captures the angular and development-focused aspects of Lévy's composition; the word also echoes Unwüchsig, which refers to lustiness and primitiveness, and Wildwuchs, uncontrolled growth. Such meanings also come into play in the thrust with which cells advance from one part to another, a technique inspired (the composer's own admission) by the cross-rhythms of Central African polyphony. Performed by a thirteen-member ensemble, Querwüchsig is a remarkable creature whose metamorphoses command the attention for fifteen knotty, action-packed minutes. Lévy exploits to maximum effect the instrumental resources, with woodwinds, horns, strings, percussion, and piano all engaged in bringing his challenging material into being. It's hardy one-dimensional either, with contrasts in dynamics, mood, and tempo similarly explored. And while Querwüchsig isn't a serial composition, you might find yourself reminded a little bit of Berg's writing during the rather playful sequence that follows the aggressive intro.

Scored for a five-member unit, Lévy's second piece is Risala fl-hob-wa fi'lm al-handasa (“small treatise on love and geometry”), its parts called “Muqarnas” (geometric figures used in Arabic architecture) and Murassa (which means enameled, bejeweled, sequined). With both titles referencing techniques of ornamentation in Islamic art, it's little surprise that, despite the modest number of instruments in play, the two would be rich in colour and sophisticated in design. During the first, staccato, dancing figures alternate with initially subdued and then agitated expressions of fragmented phrases, the micro-elements coming together to form an intricate, mutating web. The second adopts a ponderous mien, stripping its presentation down to hushed gestures and bringing silence thoughtfully into the equation.

Writings by Grisey as a twenty-two-year-old reveal remarkable prescience in how accurately he foresaw the character his future music would assume. Among the things written, he stated that his music should synthesize the cerebral and the emotional, strive to achieve the “precision and brightness of Ravel,” and be “intellectual without that intellectualism being apparent.” The latter principle definitely applies to Vortex Temporum (Lévy's two also), the forty-three-minute work incredible on formal grounds yet accessible, too. A sextet of woodwinds, strings, and piano performs the three-movement work, which opens with a dazzle of Glass-like arpeggios before quickly leaving behind any minimalism associations. Liner notes by Lévy help bring Vortex Temporum into sharper focus, revealing, for example, that it's based on a flute line from Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé (not something you'd likely glean from listening alone) and that, consistent with its microtonality dimension, four piano strings need to be detuned for the performance. Yet while it's distinguished by formal innovations of various kinds, it bears repeating that it's also an eminently listenable work. Ivan Siller, the pianist on both Vortex Temporum and Querwüchsig, deserves mention for his contributions to the Grisey work in particular, whose opening movement includes an extended solo piano episode. 

As a document of representative works by Grisey and Lévy, this is an invaluable and important recording that speaks highly on behalf of Gallois and Prague Modern but also Stradivarius for making the recording available. That the ensemble recorded all three of its selections on a single day (March 11, 2018) certainly says much about the superior calibre of musicianship involved.