During a recent visit to Snape Maltings, James Gilbert and George Strivens from Ensemble Renard sat down for an interview with our very own Development team member George Maude. They talked about their upcoming performance in the Aldeburgh Festival, the recording session that was an essential part of it, and the centenary celebrations of influential composers Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio.

The first important question for those who might not know, who is Boulez and what is the significance of his hundredth birthday?

James: Pierre Boulez was known as both a composer and conductor, he sort of defined the new French movement, I’d say. It’d be fair to say he’s one of the most influential French composers, amongst the likes of Ravel and Debussy.

George S: Yes, it’s the introduction of electronics as well, which is such a key part of his music and is instrumental to the piece we, or I should say James, is playing during the Festival. It perfectly illustrates what Boulez was doing in Paris at that time, experimenting with brand new ideas that hadn’t been introduced to classical contemporary music before. And it’s his hundredth anniversary year, as it is Luciano Berio’s – a big celebration.

Tell us about Berio.

George S: Berio was an Italian contemporary composer and was good friends with Boulez. They were working at the same time but doing different things.

James: But ultimately, at its core, the introduction of electronics to music is where Berio and Boulez cross over. It just so happened that they were born the same year, so the centenary year is important for both of them. The piece that we’ve just been recording today, which is a solo clarinet work by Boulez, was written as a birthday present to Berio. In this recital in June, we’re also playing a piece by Berio which was written as a present to Boulez. This friendship was the inspiration for this project.

George S: Boulez was probably the better known of the two, especially in this country, because he was principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a long time and had a very deep connection with that orchestra and the wider scene in the UK. Whereas Berio didn’t have the same kind of connection, so you’ll see lots of concerts celebrating Boulez, maybe fewer celebrating Berio. As a wind quintet, we have more connection to Berio because he wrote more works for the wind quintet, and so that’s what we wanted to celebrate, as well as this crossover between the two composers.

So tell me about this piece, what makes it particularly compelling for listeners?

James: It’s entitled Dialogue de l’ombre double. The ‘dialogue’ is referring to the fact that the live performer in the concert will be in dialogue with ‘l’ombre’, meaning their ‘shadow’. This is achieved through a pre-recorded tape which is what we have been recording today. Once edited, the tape will then be played on a variety of speakers surrounding the audience during the performance. It will create a surround sound effect, to give a greater sense of the space that the audiences will find themselves in. There is also a theatrical element of the live performer playing in dialogue to this recording.

George S: One of the most amazing things about Boulez’s music in this piece, is he specifies so clearly how it’s going to work with the speakers. So, in the original version, there would be an equivalent sound engineer, who would be sat at the back of the hall with a desk controlling seven speakers, and they would be manually turning the speakers up and down, which has been notated in the score. This is very unusual.

It's amazing that with Boulez’ permission, we can use modern technology to automate this so that it’s pre-programmed. Despite being written in 1984, Boulez really had the foresight to see that things would develop and accommodated for this.

And what made you want to record it here?

George S: Well, the facilities here are amazing. We are recording in the Jerwood Kiln today, which is an ideal space to record, especially for solo clarinet. We’re also working closely with sound engineer Matt Jolly today, who has been an amazing help. Boulez was very specific about how far away the microphone needs to be from the player, so Matt has carefully mapped out the space with a measuring tape to make sure it’s accurate.

James: It’s also important to have a space big enough. The Kiln is perfect in that sense, with many recording studios being limited in size, and Snape is such a peaceful environment to record. Generally, it’s also great that everything relates to Britten Pears, Snape and the surrounding area.

George S: Yes, even down to the concept for the project itself, which was conceived in the Cross Keys pub in Aldeburgh. As a group, we were Britten Pears Young Artists for two or three years, and we did a fantastic course with Quatuor Bozzini doing lots of contemporary stuff. We came away from that course thinking about all kinds of things, and one of those ideas became this project. We were delighted that the amazing people at Snape decided they liked it too, and now we’re doing it.

And it’s not your first time at the Aldeburgh Festival.

George S: No, we did a concert in 2023 which was quite a similar project. It was another celebration of a composer, but that time it was Ligeti and we played his two wind quintets with music inspired by or inspired from both before and after Ligeti, which was a great thing.

When is your upcoming Festival concert?

George S: It’s 20 June in the Jubilee Hall at 11am, so a nice way to start the day! The day afterwards we will also be at The Red House doing a project called ‘Surrounded by Sequenzas’, which is continuing the Berio celebration. Berio wrote a whole host of incredible solo pieces and we’re going to be playing the Sequenzas for wind instruments. So that’s one for flute, one for oboe, one for clarinet and one for bassoon. Unfortunately, Berio didn’t write a horn sequenza, but I will be playing a couple of related solo pieces to complete the set. We’ll be dotted around The Red House grounds; people can come and go as they please and listen to some wonderful and wacky contemporary stuff.

For your performance on 20 June, there will be a new piece by Cheryl Frances-Hoad. Can you tell us anything about that?

George S: We haven’t seen the music yet but we’re very excited about this. Cheryl is a fantastic composer. She’s one of the most exciting people writing music in this country at the moment, so as a group we’re delighted and honoured to have a piece written by her for this concert. It is always important to be commissioning new pieces and we wanted to celebrate Berio’s love for the wind quintet with a new piece.

You’ve been here for training courses, you’ve performed here, you’re connected to Snape, Aldeburgh, Britten Pears Arts etc. So what has this place done for you in terms of your career?

George S: I mean the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme is one of the most amazing training programmes you can do. I’ve been on it both with Ensemble Renard and also as a horn player in the Composition and Performance course - it’s amazing. It gives you the chance, space and time to think about, and to explore, new ideas. We were able to work out what it is that you want to be doing as an individual, as a group, and for us as a wind quintet. These opportunities give you the agency to explore and experiment.

James: I had experience with the Chamber Music in Residence course here and what I really took away from it was the holistic training that it brought. So not only the music, but the openness which the tutors have with us on everything that happens behind the scenes in preparing for a performance. A really unique aspect to the courses here is help with business management, which you won’t get training on, even at a music college, but it is essential to have a working understanding of.