New Multi-Disc Boxset ‘The Composer’ Celebrates Pierre Boulez
Out in February, the 13CD collection has been produced to mark Boulez’s centenary in 2025.
Set for release on February 7, a new boxset Boulez: The Composer, celebrates the career of the influential French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez.
This comprehensive new collection, produced to mark the composer’s centenary in 2025, brings together the works considered by the composer as sufficiently accomplished, in a single boxed set numbering 13CDs. It has also been updated with new artwork.
Created entirely under the composer’s supervision, the boxset includes the choice of performances, with this edition presenting a survey of the works he considered representative of his compositional art.
Boulez: The Composer includes recordings by Boulez himself; Pierre-Laurent Aimard; Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky; Christine Schäfer; Severino Gazzelloni; David Tudor; Jeanne-Marie Conquer; Roger Désormière; Ensemble intercontemporain; BBC Symphony Orchestra; Orchestre National de al RTF; and many more. It also features a disc of historical recordings of “Le Marteau sans maître,” the 1950 premiere of “Le Soleil des eaux” and the “Sonatine.”
In addition, the collection includes a disc with an exclusive interview with the composer by musicologist Claude Samuel. It also is accompanied with a 252-page booklet.
Originally hailing from Montbrison in the Loire department of east-central France, Pierre Boulez was also one of the most prominent conductors of his generation. In a career lasting more than sixty years, he was music director of the New York Philharmonic, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra.
He made frequent appearances with many other orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. He was known for his performances of the music of the first half of the twentieth century—including Debussy and Ravel, Stravinsky and Bartók, and the Second Viennese School—as well as that of his contemporaries, such as Ligeti, Berio and Carter. His work in the opera house included the production of Wagner’s Ring cycle for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival, and the world premiere of the three-act version of Berg’s opera Lulu. As Boulez: The Composer reveals, his recorded legacy is extensive.
Pre-order Boulez: The Composer.
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