In David Robertson’s second year at the helm of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, we are starting to get some of the more unusual repertoire with which he has been associated. Pierre Boulez’s Rituel is one such work. Composed in memory of the Italian Modernist Bruno Maderna, it dates from 1975. In it Boulez divides the orchestra into eight groups, spatially positioned around the concert hall. Each is ‘led’ by a solo percussionist, although the conductor cues each group in. In the first half, the groups play thematic material as their respective percussionists beat out a steady, straightforward rhythm. As the piece progresses, the themes give way to blocks of sound, and the percussionists seem to reference each other to a greater extent. The effect is stately and formal. Unusually for Boulez, another piece of music is evoked: Stravinsky’s Symphonies for Wind Instruments, itself a memorial dedicated to Debussy.

Boulez recorded Rituel in 1976, but never revisited it in the studio (as he did with most of his other major works). David Robertson has recorded it however, with the Lyon Orchestra, and knows the piece well. He conducted it with absolute...