Mahler and Boulez at the Royal Albert Hall
I decide that I will try to give Boulez a second chance after the hideous late-nate paring of Boulez and Berio earlier in the season. I needn't have bothered. Still struggling to understand how anyone can listen to this music for enjoyment? Surely the best place for it would be over a movie scene where the drugged-up protagonist has been dumped in a hall of mirrors? Perhaps 'confusion' was Boulez's artistic intention, but for calling it music he should have been prosecuted.
The second half is Mahler, whom I slightly prefer. The music is still chaotic; nay, apocalyptic. But at least it is glued together properly. A grandstand of chaos, one might call it. I'm drawn to the words of Harold Steptoe, as I think it was he who once said: "Mahler... compared to you, Picasso is a load old crap."
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