Page 141 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
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putting music criticism to positive purpose: william glock ...
forget Le marteau sans maître. The Boulez work was soon reported in de-
tail, from a repeat performance, by Harold Rutland in The Musical Times.30
Le marteau sans maître was performed four times (one incomplete) at the
Proms, but was joined by numerous other works championed by Glock.
One such was the large-scale Pli selon pli of which one movement only was
performed in 1961 before the complete work was played in 1969. Once es-
tablished at the BBC Proms, Boulez’s works never left the event.31 Even long
after Glock’s retirement and death, there was a very important series in
2012 at the Proms of all the Beethoven symphonies in which Daniel Baren-
boim conducted the East-West Divan Orchestra. Interspersed between the
symphonies were numerous works by Pierre Boulez, contrasting the old
and the new in a brilliant juxtaposition that William Glock himself would
have approved.32
Boulez’s music also benefitted enormously from two books published
under the editorship of Glock. The conversations with the Belgian musi-
cologist Célestin Deliège, translated from the French, gave a very detailed
but sympathetic overview of Boulez’s music up to 1975.33 Glock had an even
more important role in the symposium that he edited and was published in
1986.34 Included were important essays on Boulez’s work by the music critic
Peter Heyworth, formerly of The Observer and The New Yorker (the first 50
years), Susan Bradshaw (the instrumental and vocal music), the American
pianist Charles Rosen (the piano music), Célestin Deliège (the poetic con-
nections) and, Glock himself in a remarkable exposition of the composer’s
work with him at the BBC.
30 Harold Rutland, “Notes and Comments,” The Musical Times, April 1960, 233–4. See
also the wide-ranging and very perceptive analytical chapter by Paul Griffiths in
Boulez (London: Oxford University Press, 1978), 28–38. For detailed investigation
of the serial construction see Pascal Decroupet’s “Serial Organisation and Beyond:
Cross-Relations of Determinants in Le Marteau sans maître and the Dynamic Pitch-
-Algorithm of ‘Constellation’,” in: Edward Campbell and Peter O’Hagan, Pierre Bou-
lez Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 108–38.
31 For details of Boulez’s work with Glock in the years in London see: Peter O’Hagan,
“Pierre Boulez in London: the William Glock Years,” in: Edward Campbell and Pe-
ter O’Hagan, Pierre Boulez Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016),
303–26.
32 The works were Derive 2 (20 July), Dialogue de l’ombre double (21 July), Mémoriale
and Messagesquisses (23 July) and Anthèmes 2 (24 July). Video recordings of all the
Beethoven performances were issued on DVD (London: Decca 074 3817, 2012), but
without the Boulez works.
33 Boulez, Conversations with Célestin Deliège.
34 Glock, Pierre Boulez: a Symposium.
141
forget Le marteau sans maître. The Boulez work was soon reported in de-
tail, from a repeat performance, by Harold Rutland in The Musical Times.30
Le marteau sans maître was performed four times (one incomplete) at the
Proms, but was joined by numerous other works championed by Glock.
One such was the large-scale Pli selon pli of which one movement only was
performed in 1961 before the complete work was played in 1969. Once es-
tablished at the BBC Proms, Boulez’s works never left the event.31 Even long
after Glock’s retirement and death, there was a very important series in
2012 at the Proms of all the Beethoven symphonies in which Daniel Baren-
boim conducted the East-West Divan Orchestra. Interspersed between the
symphonies were numerous works by Pierre Boulez, contrasting the old
and the new in a brilliant juxtaposition that William Glock himself would
have approved.32
Boulez’s music also benefitted enormously from two books published
under the editorship of Glock. The conversations with the Belgian musi-
cologist Célestin Deliège, translated from the French, gave a very detailed
but sympathetic overview of Boulez’s music up to 1975.33 Glock had an even
more important role in the symposium that he edited and was published in
1986.34 Included were important essays on Boulez’s work by the music critic
Peter Heyworth, formerly of The Observer and The New Yorker (the first 50
years), Susan Bradshaw (the instrumental and vocal music), the American
pianist Charles Rosen (the piano music), Célestin Deliège (the poetic con-
nections) and, Glock himself in a remarkable exposition of the composer’s
work with him at the BBC.
30 Harold Rutland, “Notes and Comments,” The Musical Times, April 1960, 233–4. See
also the wide-ranging and very perceptive analytical chapter by Paul Griffiths in
Boulez (London: Oxford University Press, 1978), 28–38. For detailed investigation
of the serial construction see Pascal Decroupet’s “Serial Organisation and Beyond:
Cross-Relations of Determinants in Le Marteau sans maître and the Dynamic Pitch-
-Algorithm of ‘Constellation’,” in: Edward Campbell and Peter O’Hagan, Pierre Bou-
lez Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 108–38.
31 For details of Boulez’s work with Glock in the years in London see: Peter O’Hagan,
“Pierre Boulez in London: the William Glock Years,” in: Edward Campbell and Pe-
ter O’Hagan, Pierre Boulez Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016),
303–26.
32 The works were Derive 2 (20 July), Dialogue de l’ombre double (21 July), Mémoriale
and Messagesquisses (23 July) and Anthèmes 2 (24 July). Video recordings of all the
Beethoven performances were issued on DVD (London: Decca 074 3817, 2012), but
without the Boulez works.
33 Boulez, Conversations with Célestin Deliège.
34 Glock, Pierre Boulez: a Symposium.
141
