The year 2025 marks the celebration of the centenary of the birth of the composer Pierre Boulez: concerts, new editions and commissions from contemporary composers are planned to celebrate this avant-garde musician, sought-after teacher and builder of institutions. It is about “reflect and bring your personality to life”, according to the event’s curator, Laurent Bayle, former general director of the Philharmonie de Paris.
“Pierre Boulez was a giant” whose work “does honor to France and shines throughout the world”, underlined for her part the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati in a speech.
Boulez had made several of his scores into “work in progress” (works in the making) modifiable, explains Laurent Bayle, who maintained privileged professional relations with him. “He had published a catalog, in which some did not appear.” Or “researchers, academics, musicians ask to be able to play them.” The year 2025 is therefore an opportunity to integrate several opuses into the catalog.
The rights holders have decided to publish five early works for piano (1943-1945), including Chanting 0, Nocturnes or even Theme and variations for the left hand. Pianists will be able to freely use it from this year.
Two other works, Polyphony (1951), written for 18 instruments, and Poetry for powerr (1958), for magnetic tape and orchestra, had been removed from the catalog by Boulez, who “wasn’t satisfied with it”. They will be played in 2025, “with the intention of publishing them” at the end of this celebration, according to Mr. Bayle.
Finally, Notation VIII for orchestrawhich remained unfinished due to the composer’s death in 2016, is currently being finalized by composer Philippe Manoury. It will be published and “world creation”, by the Orchester de Paris, is scheduled for early 2027.
-The concerts start Monday January 6 at the Philharmonie de Paris, an institution of which Pierre Boulez is the spiritual father, in the large hall that bears his name. On the program, in particular, answer, one of his major works, which magnifies the possibilities of transforming sound, in real time, by electronics, with artists from the Institute for Acoustic/Music Research and Coordination (Ircam). Others will follow, over the course of the year, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, at the Maison de la Radio, at Ircam, at the Auditorium-Orchestre national de Lyon, at the Printemps des arts festival in Monte-Carlo …
His works will also be performed in Germany (Baden-Baden, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig), where Boulez was exiled in the early 1960s, in Great Britain, Austria, Finland, the United States, Canada, Japan. To pay tribute to the man who loved the correspondence between disciplines, one of his works will be choreographed and danced by the company of Benjamin Millepied (March 26 and 27).
Nineteen commissions were awarded to contemporary composers. They are partly financed by the Pierre Boulez Foundation and by Ircam, the Ensemble intercontemporain and the Lucerne Festival Academy, three institutions founded by the composer and conductor.
In addition, a dedicated website, pierreboulez.org, developed by the Philharmonie, was launched on Monday: it lists all the events. It also offers a catalog of his works and audiovisual archives.
