Daniel Barenboim & West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - Hommage a Boulez (2017) [Hi-Res]

Hommage à Boulez celebrates Daniel Barenboim’s and Pierre Boulez’ association, starting in June 1964, that for length and multifariousness, has few parallels in the history of music.

Pierre Boulez, one of the most distinguished musical personalities of our time, was honored with a very special gift on his 85th birthday. His close friend and artistic collaborator Daniel Barenboim arranged a concert with three key compositions by Boulez. the works were performed by members of Barenboim’s West-eastern Divan Orchestra at the Berlin Staatsoper “Unter den Linden”. at the helm was, next to Barenboim, the vigorous and highly concentrated Boulez himself.

the concert opens with “Messagesquisse” (1976), which is typical of Boulez’ late 1970s period. it leaves behind the strict serialism of the 1950s and opts for a more emotional musical idiom. Written in 1997, “Anthèmes 2” for solo violin and live electronics is a perfect example of the fusion of traditional instrumental colors and new electronic sounds. the closing work is Boulez’ early masterpiece, the work with which he made his international break- through as one of the leading gures of the young avant-garde generation: “le Marteau sans maître”. the nine-movement work pays tribute to the music of Schoenberg and Webern and is regarded as a “keystone of 20th-century music” (G. W. Hopkins in the new Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians).

Composer, conductor, musical thinker, writer, experimenter and administrator, Boulez began his career as a free-thinking revolutionary who demanded that opera houses be burned down. in the course of time, however, he reconciled with the musical establishment and, though unwaveringly pursuing his course as a composer, also became an internationally acclaimed conductor, especially of works from the late-romantic era (Wagner and Mahler) and the 20th century. His musical direction of Wagner’s “Chéreau Ring” from Bayreuth (available from Unitel) is a historical achievement.