Philippe MANOURY Jupiter CD Boulez Ades Electronic OOP

Philippe Manoury : Jupiter /  La Partition du Ciel et de l'Enfer
Philippe Manoury (Composer), Pierre Boulez (Conductor), Ensemble Intercontemporain (Orchestra), Sophie Cherrier (Performer), Hideki Nagano (Performer), Dimitri Vassilakis (Performer)
Ades CD (CD + oversizee booklet and card slipcase)
Condition CD : Mint (like new) / Booklet and slipcase : near mint


Philippe Manoury belongs to that generation of composers who, as young musicians, delighted in the nascent possibilities of electronic music at the recently opened IRCAM in Paris. Manoury distinguishes himself from others of his generation in two ways. The first is his continuing interest in serialism, while many who frequented IRCAM followed the spectralist tradition. The other is his interest in live electronics, eschewing any kind of works for tape and instead exploring the pairing of human performers with an electronic part that could react in real-time. The two pieces here, part of his cycle "Sonus ex machina", are representative of his output.

Manoury wrote "Jupiter" for flute and electronics (1987) after Laurence Beauregard, then a flautist with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, developed a flute with switches on its keys to help a computer follow along. (There's a video floating around of Beauregard demonstrating it, but sadly he died soon afterward.) This technical development let the electronic part follow the unique playing style of the live flautist. As Sophie Cherrier plays on this recording, the electronic part blossoms out of her performance in a smooth and organic fashion, with a general shimmering background to the breathiness of the flute part.

"La Partition du Ciel et de l'Enfer" for flute and 2 piano soloists, ensemble and electronics (1989) is an orchestral concertante meditation on the moods of two earlier works. One one hand, there's the slow, tranquil atmosphere of "Jupiter". On the other hand, we hear the savage keyboard attacks of "Pluton" for piano (1987, the first "Sonus ex machina" work). The electronic part here has great variety and is fine listening if your stereo is up to task.

I think Manoury's work is worth seeking out if you've already heard the electronic works of Pierre Boulez. There is a real magic to these endeavours in live electronics. Even after 20 years, when technology has progressed on, IRCAM's early successes still impress!

Biography

Born in Tulle in 1952, Philippe Manoury began his musical studies at the piano with Pierre Sancan, then at the École Normale de Musique in Paris, studying composition (with Gérard Condé and Max Deutsch), harmony, and counterpoint. He completed his training in composition at the Paris Conservatory with Ivo Malec, and Michel Philippot, as well as Claude Ballif (musical analysis). Since the age of 19 he has been active in the main centres of contemporary music performance (Royan, La Rochelle, Donaueschingen, London, etc.), and it was the premiere in 1974 of Cryptophonos by Claude Helffer which brought him to the attention of the public. From 1978 to 1981 he resided in Brazil where he held classes and gave lectures at universities in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador. On his return to France, Philippe Manoury received an invitation from IRCAM, and he has worked there as a researcher, composer and teacher since 1981.
In association with the mathematician Miller Puckette, his research has been focused on the real-time interaction of acoustic instruments and new technologies linked to musical IT. Out of this research came Sonus ex machina, a cycle of interactive pieces for various instruments: Jupiter, Pluton, La Partition du Ciel et de l‘Enfer and Neptune. From 1983 to 1987 he was in charge of pedagogy for the Ensemble intercontemporain, he taught composition and electronic music at the Lyons Conservatory from 1987 to 1997, and has held many composition seminars in France and also abroad (USA, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Canada). From 1995 to 2001 he was composer-in-residence with the Orchestre de Paris, and from 2001 to 2003, for the National Theatre in Orléans, having directed the European Music Academy of the Festival of Aix en Provence from 1998 to 2000. Since the autumn of 2004 he has been teaching composition at the University of California in San Diego. Manoury’s music has been performed in many leading cities around the world (Amsterdam, Berlin, Bratislava, Helsinki, Moscow, Oslo, Saint Petersburg, Tokyo, Vienna) and has been admired by distinguished musicians such as Pierre Boulez, the dedicatee and first conductor of Sound and Fury at the head of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, and conductor of several of his works; Esa-Pekka Salonen, who conducted the first performance of Noon (2003) with the Orchestre de Paris; and Kent Nagano, who, as director of the Bayerische Staatsorchester, conducted the world premiere of Abgrund (2007). His ensemble music has been commissioned and premiered by eminent groups such as the Ensemble intercontemporain (Identités remarquables, 2005, in Paris), Ensemble Modern (Strange ritual, 2005, in Japan) and the Orchestre Poitou-Charente (Terra ignota, 2007, in Niort and Paris). In his recent work Philippe Manoury has shown a particular interest in writing for the voice: as a solo surrounded by instruments (2007‘s Cruel Spirals), within a vocal ensemble (On-Iron in 2006 and Trakl Gedichte in 2007 were the result of a collaboration with Accentus) and in operatic form (60e Parallèle, in 1998 at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris; K…, based on Kafka’s The Trial, in 2001 at the Paris Opera; La Frontière, in 2003 at the National Theatre in Orléans). Philippe Manoury has been awarded three prizes from the SACEM: the Prize for Chamber Music (1976), the Prize for Best Musical Production (for Jupiter, 1988) and the Grand Prix for Symphonic Music (1999). He received the Grand Prix for Composition from the City of Paris in 1998, the Grand Prix of the SACD in 2001 for his opera K…, the Prize of the French musical press (2001), and the ‘Prince Pierre Ier de Monaco’ Prize (2002).