condition (record/sleeve): VG (record looks near mint but has surface noise throughout) / EX- Pierre Boulez appears in the catalog via a 10" on Fratelli Fabbri Editori, an unusual format and provenance for a composer who would dominate the major labels. Structures II / Improvisation II Sur Mallarmé captures two moments in his evolution: the combinatorial rigor of the Structures and the opening toward controlled aleatoricism in the Improvisations.
Stéphane Mallarmé returns, as with Claude Ballif. But Boulez seeks something different: not spatial vertigo but structural proliferation, the way the poem generates syntactic ramifications that music can emulate. The reduced 10" format forces selection: excerpts rather than integrals, windows onto larger works. The Italian publisher's involvement suggests the international appetite for Boulez's music even in unconventional packaging.