PIERRE BOULEZ

PIERRE BOULEZ
PIANO SONATAS NOS. 1 - 3 (1995)
320 KBPS

Boulez's First Piano Sonata, completed in 1946, has two movements. It was his first twelve-tone serial work (together with his Sonatine for flute and piano), and he originally intended to dedicate it to René Leibowitz, but their friendship ended when Leibowitz tried to make "corrections" to the score. In composing this, Boulez took great inspiration from Arnold Schönberg's Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11.
The Second Piano Sonata of 1947-48 is a powerfully original work which gained Boulez an international reputation. Through his friendship with the American composer John Cage, the work was performed in the U.S. by David Tudor in 1950. The work is in four movements, lasting a total of about 30 minutes. It is notoriously difficult to play, and the pianist Yvonne Loriod "is said to have burst into tears when faced with the prospect" of performing it.
The Third Piano Sonata was first performed by the composer in Cologne and Darmstadt in 1958, in a "preliminary version" of its five-movement form. One motivating force for its composition was Boulez's desire to explore aleatoric music. He published several writings, both criticizing the practice and suggesting its reformation, leading up to the composition of this sonata in 1955-57/63. Boulez has only published two complete movements of this work (in 1963), and a fragment of another (in Universal Edition 1967), the other movements having been written up to various stages of elaboration but not completed to the composer's satisfaction.
It's hard to imagine a much more recommendable version than this one. Idil Biret is a formidable and adventurous virtuoso temperamentally drawn to very demanding music; all three sonatas on one disc, in state-of-the-art sound, at Naxos's low price, is an unbeatable bargain...

Premiere Sonate
1. Lent - Beaucoup plus allant
2. Assez large - Rapide
Deuxieme Sonate
3. Extremement rapide - Encore plus vif
4. Lent 9:11 Album Only
5. Modere, presque vif
6. Vif - Tres modere... Tres librement...
Troisieme Sonate
7. Formant 2: Trope: Glose
8. Formant 2: Trope: Texte
9. Formant 2: Trope: Parenthese
10. Formant 2: Trope: Commentaire
11. Formant 3: Constellation - Miroir

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