| It is hardly surprising that the significance of the chapters in music history does not depend on their size. But almost never has there been such a concentration of events as in the case of the development, manifestation and overturning of serial music.And what is even more remarkable is that the individual stages of a historical process (post-twelve-tone serialism in our case) can be illustrated with the works of one composer, that is, with the piano pieces of Pierre Boulez. Just one decade passed between the fragile as well as fugitive Douze notations and the prodigious torso of the Third Piano Sonata – between the early work of an unknown composer in his twenties, who was already firm in his resolve not to keep up the tradition he was part of, and the work of the thirty-year-old avant-garde star, who only had to loosen the ties he himself had put on before. — Raoul Mörchen No one in contemporary music arouses such fierce passion as the eminent conductor and composer Pierre Boulez, who celebrates his 80th birthday this year. At one time a young firebrand who wanted to blow up opera houses, he's now an eminence grise, feted around the world. Notations (1945) written when Boulez was only 20, reveals his debt to the Second Viennese School and to his teacher, Olivier Messiaen. These 12 short movements are wonderfully concise and colourful and, some may say, mercifully brief. The First Piano Sonata (1946) is a violent and passionate work. Cast in two opposing movements exploring the extremes of lyricism and percussiveness, the First Sonata distinguished Boulez as a composer to be reckoned with and hints at his mature style. The virtuoso, four-movement Second Piano Sonata (1948) finds Boulez moving away from traditional forms and towards total serialism but there are still traces of the sonata form in the work. The Third Piano Sonata [1955-7] is Boulez's most experimental work. The sensual and ethereal music reflects Boulez's fascination with Mallarmé's final and revolutionary work, "Une coup de dés." Stravinsky wrote that "Boulez's Third Piano Sonata is as purely 'pianistic' as an étude by Debussy, yet it...exposes... a whole region of sound neglected until now." The work is radical in its treatment of the piano's sonority and is as yet, unfinished. The individual parts of the Sonata's two completed movements - it was originally conceived in five - can be ordered and arranged by the interpreter according to a multitude of arrows. |
TRACKS
Douze Notations pour piano (1945) 1 Fantasque – Modéré 0:53 2 Très vif 0:21 3 Assez lent 0:47 4 Rythmique 0:29 5 Doux et improvisé 0:49 6 Rapide 0:28 7 Hiératique 1:01 8 Modéré jusqu'à très vif 0:42 9 Lointain – Calme 1:41 10 Mécanique et très sec 0:21 11 Scintillant 0:51 12 Lent – Puissant et âpres 1:17
Première sonate pour piano (1946) 13 I 5:00 14 II 5:35
Deuxième sonate pour piano (1947–48) 15 I 7:39 16 II 10:45 17 III 2:32 18 IV 13:01
Troisième sonate pour piano (1955–57) I Trope 19 Texte 1:19 20 Parenthèse 3:19 21 Commentaire 2:31 22 |