This is the second reissue (the first was in 1979) ofa lively performance of one of Boulez's most approachable works. I hope for some new recordings in the composer's sixtieth birthday year, but thisLP (originally issued by RCA) shows few signs of age: the sound is still bright and clear.
Michel Portal makes the clarinet soloist a Harlequin figure, a sparkling show-off who, in the first half of the work, provokes the six separate instrumental ensembles into lively expostulation. In the second half the ensembles lead, and the clarinet is provoked, interrupting with impatience, a free-thinkingindividualist pouring scorn on the attempts at collective comment by all but one of the ensembles. The exception is an ensemble of one, a solo bass clarinet who could, we feel, get the better of the main soloist if the work were to move into a third phase. Diego Masson keeps the contest under tight control, though it is Boulez himself, in characteristic conducting pose, who gets his picture on the sleeve.'