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Pierre Boulez Receives Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award

Oct. 31, 2012

Pierre Boulez Receives Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award

On October 6, the 56th International Festival of Contemporary Music honored composer and conductor Pierre Boulez with its Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award. The ceremony concluded with a concert of the composer’s works Incises and sur Incises, performed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain with Susanna Mälkki conducting. Previous recipients of the Golden Lion award include Luciano Berio (1995), Friedrich Cerha (2006), Helmut Lachenmann (2008), György Kurtág (2009), Wolfgang Rihm (2010), and Peter Eötvös (2011).

Held as part of the Venice Biennale, the festival cited Boulez as one of the most influential musicians and teachers of the last 60 years. His contemporaries and younger composers watched Boulez’s career and followed his creative development as he rebelled against the traditions of Schönberg, Stravinsky, and his teacher Messiaen. Boulez emerged with his own musical voice and has become a celebrated, living legend.

Ivan Fedele, director of the Biennale Music section, provided the following remarks:

This is a recognition of the absolute value of an artist who has lived through the history of contemporary music, offering the entire world compositions that, in the opinion of musicologists and artists from around the world, are true masterpieces of modernity. The Maestro’s work has also expressed itself in the theoretical field with exemplary books that have served as a guide and model for generations of young composers. Furthermore, as a conductor, Boulez has offered interpretations of the classical and contemporary repertoire that are now considered milestones.


For more details on the award and ceremony, please visit the www.labiennale.org.

To learn more about Pierre Boulez, please visit www.universaledition.com.

Pierre Boulez
Incises (1994/2001)
for solo piano
3’

sur Incises (1996/1998)
for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists
40’

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