Exquisite Labyrinth - Pierre Boulez @ Southbank Centre - 30.09 to 02.10.11

[Roehre]

Has Boulez re-written all of his music? There seem to be various versions of many pieces. In fact, there don't seem to be that many pieces but an oeuvre swollen by variations of them.

I think that's an understatement.
Nearly the whole of Boulez' complete output is a "work-in-progress". Only the piano sonatas , the early flute sonata and Le maitre [AFAIK] seem to have escaped so far, but e.g. the Notations are "early" works too, but were taken back to the drawing board more than 30 years after these were completed (and "re-completed" recently)....

[Serial_Apologist]

The Boulez work that immediately won me over was the orchestral piece "Figures-Doubles-Prismes" of 1968. I find it a work of extraordinary beauty, which gradually de-energises to passges of exquisite calm towards the end.

[handsomefortune]

messiaen, on debussy and colour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSWatsiBErU

(a shame it's just a fragment).

[hackneyvi]

The 2nd piano sonata turned out very approachable; magnificently ryhthmic first movement. Again, the influence of the music is obvious because the style is familiar. In this case, the influence is apparant in some of Craig Taborn's pieces on Avenging Angel that I think of as 'pebble music'. The way the music rocks, halts, rises, drops and streams reminds me of the roll and repercussion of rubble through a river. The last movement didn't seem necessary on a single hearing, appeared to repeat the preceding shapes with less energy. But then, that might have been the point.