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Pierre Boulez

  • FestivalsPremières

    World New Music Days 2025, Portugal (Part 1)

    by 5:4 June 15, 2025 • 08:15
    June 15, 2025 • 08:15

    Contemporary music festivals often feel the need to impose a theme on the proceedings, but in the case of this year’s World New Music Days, hosted in Portugal, it was less a theme than a rallying cry. “Thirst for Change” was the phrase hanging over the festival, though as with …

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  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Pierre Boulez (orch. Schöllhorn) – Notations Nos. 2, 10 & 11; La treizième (UK Première)

    by 5:4 December 4, 2022 • 05:00
    December 4, 2022 • 05:00

    Pierre Boulez composed his piano work Douze Notations in 1945. After its première in February of that year (by Yvette Grimaud), the piece was subsequently withdrawn by Boulez (evidently already regarding it as outdated), who only relented and allowed it to be published in the mid-1980s. Despite this, in 1946 …

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  • 20th CenturyCD/Digital releases

    Michael Gielen Edition Vol. 10: Music after 1945

    by 5:4 February 18, 2022 • 13:21
    February 18, 2022 • 13:21

    i’m really not a conductor fanboy. Composers are always getting me excited; performers too, from time to time; but conductors, in general, not so much. There are some special cases: Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Chailly have both stunned me on countless occasions; i’ve always had a lot of time for …

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  • Advent CalendarPremières

    Maurice Ravel (arr. Boulez) – Frontispice (UK Première)

    by 5:4 December 18, 2021 • 05:00
    December 18, 2021 • 05:00

    Today’s Advent Calendar work is another fascinating miniature oddity. Maurice Ravel composed Frontispice – his shortest work, consisting of just 15 bars – in June 1918. It was commissioned by the writer and poet Ricciotto Canudo, intended to act as a preface to Canudo’s S.P. 503, Le Poème du Vardar, …

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  • CD/Digital releases

    Ensemble Musikfabrik – Stille, Label Musikfabrik

    by 5:4 December 18, 2017 • 14:59
    December 18, 2017 • 14:59

    Let’s talk about Ensemble Musikfabrik. First off, the German ensemble is responsible for some of the most memorable and fascinating concerts i’ve ever attended. Their performances during the 2016 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival remain personal favourites, both the opening weekend concert – including among other things, Georg Friedrich Haas’ I can’t breathe …

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  • 20th CenturyBlasts from the Past

    Blasts from the Past: Pierre Boulez – Piano Sonata No. 1

    by 5:4 January 5, 2016 • 22:51
    January 5, 2016 • 22:51

    “Vous êtes de la merde!” i’m going to begin 2016 by looking back 70 years to the earliest acknowledged work by one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated composers, Pierre Boulez. For much of his life, but particularly as a young composer, Boulez’s perceived demeanour was, to put it mildly, …

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  • Lent Series

    Pierre Boulez – Domaines

    by 5:4 March 26, 2015 • 09:29
    March 26, 2015 • 09:29

    Joyeux anniversaire, Pierre! Today’s the day, the 90th birthday of Pierre Boulez, and, continuing the concerto theme, the piece with which i’d like to celebrate the occasion is Domaines, for clarinet and orchestra, completed in 1969. Typically, the piece began life a decade earlier (early sketches pertaining to it, tentatively …

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  • Lent Series

    Pierre Boulez – Messagesquisse

    by 5:4 March 24, 2015 • 21:17
    March 24, 2015 • 21:17

    The second concerto-esque work by Pierre Boulez that i want to explore this week is Messagesquisse for cello solo and six cellos. The gestation of this piece was very much more straightforward than that of Mémoriale, being composed in 1976 as a 70th birthday present for that great champion of …

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  • Lent Series

    Pierre Boulez – Mémoriale (…explosante-fixe… Originel)

    by 5:4 March 22, 2015 • 12:24
    March 22, 2015 • 12:24

    This week marks the 90th birthday of Pierre Boulez, and to mark the occasion i’m going to explore three of his concerto-esque works, beginning with Mémoriale, composed in 1985. Well, that’s not strictly accurate; one of the characteristic traits of Boulez’s output is an ongoing tendency to rethink and recompose previous …

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5:4
  • About
    • Other writings
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • Compositions explored on 5:4
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
    • Festivals reviewed on 5:4
    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
  • Contact
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