The Shape of the Shadow Notes on Boulez’s Dialogue de l’ombre double by Jörg Widmann
I. “Now the Piece Belongs to You”: Working with Pierre Boulez As a teenager, I had a revelatory New Music experi ence: I attended the Musica Festival in Strasbourg with my father, where Pierre Boulez was conducting his own works with the Ensemble intercontemporain. One of them was Répons and the other was Dialogue de l’ombre d ouble, which was, of course, fascinating to me as a clarinetist and composer. A number of colleagues had warned me: Boulez, so brainy, so dogmatic, so strict and narrowly constructed. To me, it seemed the opposite: I sat there with my mouth and ears open. It was an extremely sensual experience, a rush of colors. My thoughts, my music-making would never be the same. It is one of the great strokes of good fortune in my b iography and my artistic life that many years later I got to meet Pierre Boulez and that we worked together on many o ccasions. He premiered my orchestral piece Armonica with the Vienna Philharmonic, which was an u nforgettable experience for all involved—Boulez’s analytical intellect and the warm sound of that orchestra created an incredible symbiosis. Exploring Dialogue de l’ombre double was a kind of work in progress. Over the years, we kept collaborating on the piece. The first time was a performance in Badenweiler. We often talked about it, and Boulez had quite a bit of criticism—first of all, he had an unerring ear, and secondly a very clear idea of what he wanted to hear. He offered a lot of inspiration, but also stated unequivocally when he didn’t like something. I was deeply moved when he asked me to play Dialogue de l’ombre double for his 85th birthday at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.The museum houses a Foucault pendulum. He suggested that I should place my music stands in a circle 11
