Les Siècles

Eleven years after the last appearance by Pierre Boulez at the Théâtre, his memory still lives on. The legacy of this towering figure of the second half of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century is closely associated with avenue Montaigne – at the helm of the Orchestre de Paris, the Wiener Philharmoniker, the LSO, and his Ensemble intercontemporain, as a composer, or simply as a spectator. Who better to celebrate this centenary than Les Siècles, who often met him. For this centenary, Les Siècles have chosen to perform the iconic Pli selon Pli, Portrait de Mallarmé by Boulez, premiered in 1958. With Debussy in counterpoint, they demonstrate,  “the extent to which the French Impressionist technique gave musicians subtlety and an imaginative approach to sound”. Mallarmé features once again with Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé in an arrangement by Heinz Holliger, in tandem with La Mer. For these two classics, for Les Siècles will deploy gut strings and period woodwind instruments to recreate all the original colours of the works.

Already well-known to fans of contemporary and French repertoire (Eötvös, Dusapin, George Benjamin, Thierry Escaich, whose recent Shirine he conducted at the Opéra de Lyon), Franck Ollu should feel at home with this program, which establishes a dialogue between Debussy and Boulez. The young Franco-Cypriot Sarah Aristidou is one of the rising voices in Germany, where she trained. The French audience discovered her when she was nominated as a Revelation at the 2022 Victoires de la Musique, and through the release of two recent, highly acclaimed albums with Alpha. Deeply involved in contemporary music as well, she is expected to shine in Heinz Holliger's arrangement of Debussy’s Trois Poèmes de Mallarmé.

Coproduction Théâtre des Champs-Elysées | Les Siècles