Search - Pierre Boulez, Bela Viktor Janos Bartok, Alban Maria Johannes Berg :: Boulez - 20th Century [44 CD][Limited Edition]

A cube with striking images of Boulez taken by French photographer Philippe Gontier

Sleeves featuring photographs of the composers

New booklet text by Wolfgang Stähr
A handsome tribute to one of the most iconic musicians of our time.

On 26 March 2015 Pierre Boulez reaches his ninetieth year. This great master of music composer, conductor and writer has been an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon for over 20 years; his recording legacy with the label is immense. We celebrate his birthday with a 44-CD box set of his complete DG 20th century music recordings an aspect of his work that lies at the heart of his achievement.

COMPOSER OVERVIEW
CD 1 8 Bartók
CD 9 12 Berg
CD 13 14 Birtwistle
CD 15 19 Boulez
CD 20 21 Debussy
CD 22 23 Ligeti
CD 24 25 Messiaen
CD 26 29 Ravel
CD 30 33 Schoenberg
CD 34 39 Stravinsky
CD 40 Szymanowski
CD 41 Varèse
CD 42 44 Webern

Homage to Pierre Boulez: drawing on his three- or even fourfold authority as a composer, conductor, teacher and essayist, the French musician, who was born in 1925, has undertaken far-reaching reforms of international concert life, while exerting an influence on the repertory that has both pointed the way forward for others and proved stylistically determinative and left a lasting mark on programming policies, on orchestral culture and, last but not least, on the way that leading conductors see themselves. There is a whole generation of us who were completely educated by Boulez, Sir Simon Rattle told Nicholas Kenyon, echoing the view of many, if not most, of his contemporaries. His complete lack of the maestro ethic is utterly irresistible. Of course, Boulez has always had to contend with the reproach that he is above all a cool intellectual and a sober analyst, and yet it is a criticism that Boulez himself knows how to refute in a way that is as elegant as it is witty: Analysis is merely a preliminary stage, a preparation, he explains. An interpretation is not a demonstration. I don t demonstrate vacuum cleaners. You first have to have clear ideas. After that you can be spontaneous. True spontaneity comes only after analysis.
Wolfgang Stähr