Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) was a French composer and conductor, born in Montbrison, and one of the central figures of postwar serial music. He is known for works such as Le Marteau sans maître and Pli selon pli, and for founding IRCAM in Paris, the institute for musical research and electronics that opened in 1977. Boulez started the Domaine musical concert series in Paris in 1954 and later the Ensemble intercontemporain, set up alongside IRCAM. His catalogue also includes Structures Book I for two pianos and Répons for soloists, ensemble and live electronics.
Edgard Varèse, Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Giacomo Manzoni, Luciano Berio, Henri Pousseur, Pierre Schaeffer, François Bayle, Bruno Maderna, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Franco Donatoni, Sylvano Bussotti, Mauricio Kagel, Gyorgy Ligeti, Niccolò Castiglioni, Boris Porena, John Cage, Marius Constant, Krzysztof Penderecki, Zbynek Vostrak, Edison Denisov, Erik Satie, Anton Webern
La musica moderna IV (16x10” binder)Amazing book-bound storage binder collecting 16 10" albums issued in the historical La Musica Moderna collection, without covers/magazines, published by Fratelli Fabbri in the late 1960's as a panorama of avant-garde music in the 20th century.
Structures II / Improvisation II Sur Mallarmé (10")
Two post-serialist compositions from the late 1950's, respectively for two pianos and for soprano and nine instruments, released in La Musica Moderna record magazine nr.99. No booklet.
Première Sonate Pour Piano / Deuxième Sonate Pour Piano / Troisième Sonate Pour Piano (2LP)
The three ground-breaking avant-garde sonatas composed between 1946 and 1957 performed by Herbert Henck and released on Wergo in 1985 as a double LP-set.
Aurèle Nicolet – Flöte (LP)
Five avant-garde compositions for solo flute (two with piano) by European and Japanese contemmporary composers spanning from 1948 to 1969 performed by Aurèle Nicolet and released on Wergo's "Große Interpreten neuer Musik" series in 1969 (German edition). Never re-issued on either LP or CD.
Aurèle Nicolet – Flöte (LP)
Five avant-garde compositions for solo flute (two with piano) by European and Japanese contemmporary composers spanning from 1948 to 1969 performed by Aurèle Nicolet and released on Trio Records in 1969 (Japanese edition). Never re-issued on either LP or CD. With insert.
Les Bandar-log Op. 176 / Le Soleil Des Eaux / Chronochromie (LP)
1965 French LP of post-serialist orchestral and vocal music performed by the BBC Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Pierre Boulez and Antal Dorati.
Pour Mémoire II / Allégories D'Exil IV / We Approach The Sea (LP)
Three pieces respectively for orchestra, ensemble and piano compositions from 1977 to 1982 released on Harmonia Mundi's "Evénement / Musique française d'aujourd'hui" series in 1984.
Sounday 15-6-78 (book)
Rare fully illustrated hommage to the composer published as the program for the 1978 première and recording of Sounday by KRO Radio in Holland, with texts by Pierre Boulez, Merce Cunningham, David Tudor, Christian Wolff, etc..
A Garland For Dr. K. (LP)
Eleven compositions for the 80th Birthday of Dr. Alfred A. Kalmus by some of the most representative composers of avant-garde (David Bedford, Hugh Wood, Pierre Boulez, Richard Rodney Bennett, Luciano Berio, Cristobal Halffter, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Harrison Birtwistle, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernard Rands, Henri Pousseur) released on Universal Edition in 1976.
New Music For String Quartet (LP)
Compositions for string quartet spanning from 1949 to 1965 released on Mainstream's avant-garde series directed by Earle Brown.
Lied Der Waldtaube / Serenade Op. 24 / Ode To Napoleon Bonaparte Op. 41 (LP)
Three compositions by the father of the Second Viennese School performed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted by Pierre Boulez, Jessye Norman and John Shirley-Quirk, released by CBS Masterworks in 1982. With insert.
Le Marteau Sans Maître / Nr. 5 Zeitmasse For Five Woodwinds (LP)
Two landmark mid-1950's compositions by two of the 20th century most influential composers released in 1968 on Odyssey's "Music Of Our Time" contemporary music series directed by David Behrman.
Arcus / Funérailles Versions I & II (LP)
Höller's beautiful 1978 composition for 17 isbtruments and tape backed with Ferneyhough's excellent 1977/1980 piece for 7 strings and harp, produced at Ircam in the 80's and released on Erato's short-lived "Points de rèpere" contemporary series in 1985. With insert.
Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum / Couleurs De La Cité Céleste (LP)
1970's re-issue on Erato's "Musique De Notre Temps" contemporary music series of two powerful works from the 60's for orchestra and for piano, wind and percussion ensemble, conducted by Pierre Boulez and featuring Les Percussions de Strasbourg.
Les Bandar-log Op. 176 / Le Soleil Des Eaux / Chronochromie (LP)
1965 UK LP of post-serialist orchestral and vocal music performed by the BBC Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Pierre Boulez and Antal Dorati.
Etwas Weiter / D'Un Arbre De Nuit / Messagesquisse / Mélodies (LP)
Chamber music on Le Chant Du Monde's contemporary music series "Musique française d'aujourd'hui".
Rituel / Eclat / Multiples
1990 release ** "The seven-minute chamber work Eclat (1965) sounds like a direct continuation of the musical world of Pli selon pli, with its shiny percussion sonorities and mesmeric fixity. In 1970, Boulez added a new continuation, Multiples, to the original Eclat, with the intention, he said, of eventually writing a forty-minute piece using ever greater numbers of instruments – though thirty years later he has yet to fulfil this promise and the work remains unfinished. Despite this, the existi…
Serenata I/Sonatine/Canteyodjaya/Zeitmasze
**Edition of 500. 180 gram vinyl** Fantôme Phonographique present a reissue of Serenata I/Sonatine/Canteyodjaya/Zeitmasze, originally released in 1958. The avant-garde composer and conductor Pierre Boulez was a titan of post-war experimental classical music. Born in the small cheesemaking town of Montrbrison in central France in 1925, Boulez studied at the Paris Conservatoire with the composer and organist Charles Messiaen and received private tuition from pianist Andrée Vaurabourg; after moving…
Le Domaine Musical 1956... 1967
"For the occasion of Pierre Boulez' 90th birthday on 26 march 2015, Universal Classics France present a revised and enhanced version of the former edition celebrating his years at the helm of paris' legendary "Le domaine musical" concerts. Initially presented in two volumes, the recordings are now assembled in a single 10cd set, documenting the history of the domaine musical with a mixture of live concert recordings and studio sessions based upon the performances in the Théatre Marigny in Paris,…
Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 4
"Wergo's reissues of the legendary Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series have been a big hit with fans of contemporary music around the world. Each set is a treasure-trove of works by a wide range of composers, performed by some of the finest musicians of the time. The three CDs of volume four feature string quartets by Boulez, Scelsi and Earle Brown, works for chamber orchestra by Xenakis, Aldo Clementi, Bo Nilsson, Wlodzimierz Kotonski and Yuji Takahashi and works by Milko Kelemen, Niccolo Cas…
Dialogo della musica antiqua et della moderna - Musica Viva 04
Pierre Boulez as conductor – in a musical discourse among antiquity, middle ages and classical modernism.
Orchestral Works & Chamber Music
A conductor enjoys the privilege of being able to reconsider his attitude to musical works over and over again. The composer Boulez adheres to the same maxim: of his own compositions he regards only very few as being finished; most of them are, to him, "work in progress." The first two pieces on this collage CD were actually withdrawn by Boulez after their premiere as he wished to think them over again. Later on, Polyphonie X (1951) in view of its extremely strict serial procedure appeared to hi…
Folk Songs, Sequenza VI, Les Mots sont allés - Dérive
Folk Songs, written in 1964, has long been one of Berio's most popular works. A series of eleven songs for mezzo and chamber ensemble, it is couched in an accessible language with more than a hint of Stravinsky in the instrumentation. The songs here are not all folk songs: some are arrangements of popular songs in folk style and a couple are original Berio compositions, while the last song was transcribed from an old scratched 78 by the composer's then-wife Cathy Berberian. This performance, if …