Boulez’s shattering Second Piano Sonata, and two extraordinary works for solo clarinet - one with electronics - performed by the hugely talented musicians of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and by Tamara Stefanovich who studied the Second Piano Sonata with Pierre Boulez, and introduced by BBC Radio 3’s Kate Molleson.
Pierre Boulez made art without compromise. “History as it is made by great composers is not a history of conservation, but of destruction - even while cherishing what is destroyed”, he wrote, and in his explosive Second Piano Sonata of 1947-8 he set out to blast a path forward through the ruins of the western tradition. Few experiences in 20th century piano music are more visceral – or more bracing. And we’ll hear Boulez explore the clarinet and the amazing things it can do in Domaines (1961) and Dialogue de l’ombre double for clarinet and tape (1985) – written 24 years later.
Don’t be misled: this is music that’s small only in the physical sense; a thrilling reminder that as well as being a radical chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boulez was a creator who split the musical atom - and revelled in the energy it released.
Performers:
Beñat Erro Díez, clarinet
Lily Payne, clarinet
Tamara Stefanovich, piano
