European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

The Cleveland Orchestra Celebrates Pierre Boulez

Dec. 17, 2014

The Cleveland Orchestra Celebrates Pierre Boulez

2015 brings the 90th birthday of composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. On January 15, The Cleveland Orchestra presents a birthday salute to its former music director with performances of his Notations I-IV led by Franz Welser-Möst, and Douze Notations performed by pianist Joela Jones.

Douze Notations, for solo piano, was written when the composer was 20 years old, and premiered by Yvette Grimaud in 1945. Boulez notes that he almost spontaneously composed the work, which consists of twelve short pieces each twelve bars in length, in order “to make fun of the 12-tone” system and the dogmatism of academic analysis. In the following decades, Boulez orchestrated several movements for large orchestral forces. When asked about his influences while reworking Notations, Boulez commented that he thought of the project as “an exercise in orchestration…[I used] elements that were my own, but followed influences – such as Wagner – to proliferate ideas within the music.”

The Recording Academy has also announced Pierre Boulez as a recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The Academy writes that "the 26-time Grammy winner continues to be one of the most influential music creators within the classical genre." To coincide with his 90th birthday this year, Sony Classical has released "Pierre Boulez: The Complete Columbia Album Collection", an authoritative set of 67 albums with recordings spanning Boulez's partnerships with the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony orchestra, the Ensemble InterContemporain and the New York Philharmonic.

Visit Universal Edition’s #Boulez90 blog for an exclusive collection of videos, articles and assorted media in celebration of the composer’s birthday, including Boulez’s 2009 interview about Notations.

For more concert details, visit clevelandorchestra.com.

Information on Pierre Boulez can be found at universaledition.com.

Pierre Boulez
Douze Notations (1945)
for solo piano
10’

Notations I-IV (1945/1978/1984)
for orchestra
4.4.5.4-6.4.4.1-timp.8perc-3hp.cel-str
8’

News