Exploring 20th-century repertoire – both acknowledged masterpieces and new discoveries – this 14-CD anthology reflects the diverse aesthetic strands of Pierre Boulez’s programming over the course of his ground-breaking and influential career. These Erato recordings, made between 1966 and 1992, feature composers otherwise absent from Boulez’s discography – Xenakis, Donatoni, Grisey, Dufourt, Ferneyhough, Harvey and Höller – and the first CD release of the interpretation of Stravinsky’s incantatory Les Soucoupes in the version for female voices and four horns.
There seems something soberingly final about the title of Deutsche Grammophon's collection, which brings together recordings of all the music Pierre Boulez acknowledges, from the 12 Notations for piano of 1946 to Dérive 2, the churning, turbulent ensemble piece that reached its latest, 44-minute form in 2006. Boulez is now 88; his eyesight is known to be failing, and new works such as the Waiting for Godot opera planned for La Scala may never be fulfilled. Similarly, the scores long marked "work in progress" in his catalogue may for ever remain just that. As Claude Samuel says in his wonderfully perceptive and informative notes to the set, "more than anyone else's, Pierre Boulez's oeuvre has not known completion and never will". What's on these 13 discs, then, is likely to be the body of work on which Boulez's place in the history of 20th-century music will be assessed.
The latter half of the twentieth century was a period of turbulence – both artistically and culturally – and produced a wealth of provocative and often divisive music; much of which we are still coming to terms with, and much which has hugely influenced today’s pop culture and its music. 20C: Shaping the Century Volume II surveys a musical landscape of what are sometimes disparate compositional styles, and makes the repertoire accessible to everyone with an interest in this rich musical heritage. Decca’s and DG’s exceptionally-balanced survey of the music of twentieth century features one masterpiece from each featured composer, five composers per decade.Together this presents iconic works by 25 of the most iconic composers of the years 1950-2000.
The Amsterdam-based Schoenberg Ensemble ranks alongside the London Sinfonietta, the Ensemble Modern from Frankfurt and Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris as one of Europe's most distinguished new-music groups. What began in 1974 when seven student instrumentalists got together with their teacher, Reinbert de Leeuw, to perform Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire has steadily diversified. At first, the group concentrated on the music of the Second Viennese School, but gradually its scope expanded: now the Schoenberg Ensemble has a core lineup of 14 musicians and a repertoire that stretches from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day.