Pierre Boulez conducts prewar works

On the occasion of Pierre Boulez's 90th birthday, medici.tv releases a 2-part concert with this eminent French composer, author and conductor. Pierre Boulez, From Debussy to Dalbavie presents a concert dedicated to the maestro, recorded with the Orchestre de Paris and the Ensemble intercontemporain he had conducted during many years.

A representative figure and thinker of contemporary music, a composer of the avant-garde and a peerless conductor, Pierre Boulez truly left his footprint in the music of the 20th century. Inspired by the influences of his masters Olivier Messiaen et René Leibowitz, the maestro had tried to experiment codes, to overstep traditions. Through an anthology of works that had marked his life, a real portrait of the committed and reformist musician is depicted during this event.

In the first part of this program, Pierre Boulez examines works composed before the First World War to explain the repertoire he had worked on during his life. From Bartók, Webern, Berg, Debussy and Schoenberg, he drew fundamental elements that would have durably marked his musical production. He gives examples such as the musician's emancipation faced with the influences of musical traditions, the purification of the harmony and the transformation of folkloric music into a savant form of music.