The year 2025 marks the celebration of the centenary of the birth of the composer Pierre Boulez, born March 26, 1925: concerts, new editions and commissions from contemporary composers are planned to celebrate the avant-garde musician, sought-after teacher and builder of institutions .
It is “ reflect and bring to life one’s personality,” according to Laurent Bayle, former director general of the Philharmonie de Paris and curator of the event initiated by the Ministry of Culture, in partnership with the Philharmonie, the Pierre Boulez Foundation and the SLAM fund (Trail Capital company). This year dedicated to the great French composer and conductor will notably be an opportunity to discover several new releases.
Pierre 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. But researchers, academics and musicians ask to be able to play them.” 2025 is therefore an opportunity to integrate several opuses into the catalog.
Philippe Manoury will finalize an unfinished work by Pierre Boulez
The rights holders have therefore decided to publish five early works for piano (1943-1945), including Chanting 0, Nocturnesor 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 power (1958), for magnetic tape and orchestra, had been removed from the catalog by the composer, who “ was not satisfied with it. They will be played in 2025, “ with the intention of editing them » at the end of this celebration.
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 a world premiere, by the Orchester de Paris, is scheduled for early 2027.
Benjamin Millepied and his company will offer a choreography based on a work by Pierre Boulez
The concerts in tribute to Pierre Boulez began this Monday in the large hall that bears his name at the Philharmonie de Paris, an institution of which he is the spiritual father. Others will follow, over the course of the year, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, at the Maison de la Radio, at Ircam, at the Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon, at the Monte-Carlo Spring Arts Festival. …
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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… For to pay homage 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).
A dedicated website lists all the events linked to the Boulez year
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 de Paris, was launched this Monday: it lists all the events. It also offers a catalog of his works and audiovisual archives.
Philippe Gault (with AFP)
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