Gilbert Amy

condition (record/cover): NM / NM Gatefold sleeve.  Amy Dirige Amy on Disques Adès puts Gilbert Amy on the podium interpreting his own work. The redundancy of the title (Amy conducts Amy) announces a closed circuit, creator and interpreter collapsed into a single figure. Some composers conduct their own music poorly, too close to hear clearly. Amy belonged to the other category: his performances reveal rather than obscure.

The recording captures the paradox of self-interpretation. Who knows better what the music should sound like? Who is more likely to be blind to what it actually does? Amy navigates these questions without resolving them. The performance carries authority and uncertainty in equal measure, which may be exactly right. After years of conducting Boulez, Stockhausen, and the entire postwar canon, Amy brought to his own scores the same forensic attention he gave to others.