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

Pierre Boulez's Notations I-IV with Seattle Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic

Oct. 30, 2013

Pierre Boulez's <em>Notations I-IV</em> with Seattle Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic

Pierre Boulez’s monumental Notations I-IV receives performances this month by both the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. On November 7 and 9, Ludovic Morlot leads the Seattle Symphony in performances at the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium. As a fitting prelude, the orchestra’s chamber series features a performance of Boulez’s Messagesquisse, for solo cello and cello sextet,on November 3. Beginning on November 12 at the Arts Center in Seoul, Korea, Sir Simon Rattle leads the Berlin Philharmonic in performances throughout the orchestra’s Asian tour. Further performances take place on November 16 at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Kobe, Japan and as well on November 19 at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.

Notations was commissioned by the Orchestre de Paris, who, under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, gave the premiere of pieces I-IV in 1980 at the Palais des Congrès. Originally composed in 1945 as short works for piano, each 12 measures in length, Boulez returned to the pieces more than 30 years later to develop them for orchestra. Despite the scale of the orchestration, the texture of Notations is always delicate and transparent, each marked notably by a distinct character. Boulez notes:

[Notations is] not so much a matter of orchestration than, as Berio would say, of transcription. What more should one say, except that the character of each piece is defined, isolated, fixed in one unique mode of expression, and that the relationship established between the pieces is essentially one of contrast.

More information on Pierre Boulez can be found at www.universaledition.com. 

Pierre Boulez
Notations I–IV (1945/1978/1984/1987)
for orchestra
4.4.5.4-6.4.4.1-timp.8perc-3hp.cel.pno-str(18.16.14.12.10)
7’

News