Composer

The renowned British musician Thomas Adès has put together an evening dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Pierre Boulez’s birth. Perhaps as a tribute to Boulez, he will appear in both roles for which Boulez was known: as a composer and a conductor.

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Czech Philharmonic • Thomas Adès

Rudolfinum

After two years of close collaboration with the LSO, bold new works by Omri Kochavi and Sasha Scott –developed through the LSO Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Composers’ Scheme – are brought to life. Donghoon Shin brings his dynamic, shimmering style of composition to his debut Piano Concerto, written especially for the extraordinary Seong-Jin Cho.

London Symphony Orchestra/Maxim Pascal

Barbican Centre

Experience a concert where the sound of music is at the center and where the concert's composers, across styles and expressions, have a special sense of the sound of music.

Together with pianist Christian Ihle Hadland, we take you on a journey through French music from the Romantic period in the 1860s to the present day. On the journey, you will feel the composers' nuances and feelings for the different expressions and sounds.

The music will range widely from the romantic Taffanel and Fauré's emotional tones to the modernist approach of Roussel, Boulez and Pécou. 

French Delicatesses

Southern Denmark Conservatory of Music

Our orchestra gives its very first performance of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1, unveiling a masterpiece brimming with youthful intensity and the raw vulnerability of a composer establishing his voice.

Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1

Salt Palace Convention Center

Start your morning off right with a behind-the-scenes look at the process of bringing our concerts to the stage. Finishing Touches gives our audience the opportunity to observe working rehearsals; selections from the program will be rehearsed at the discretion of the conductor.

Our orchestra gives its very first performance of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1, unveiling a masterpiece brimming with youthful intensity and the raw vulnerability of a composer establishing his voice.

Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1: Finishing Touches Rehearsal

Michael Barenboim, a player of ‘crackling intensity’ (The Guardian), has become almost synonymous with Pierre Boulez’ groundbreaking works for solo violin and live electronics. Gilbert Nuono joins him today to realise these effects live in concert.

Michael Barenboim: Boulez & Electronics

Southbank Centre

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Boulez’s Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna (“the most sensuously appealing score of Boulez’s career,” The New Yorker) in an immersive production featuring L.A. Dance Project and choreography by the renowned French dancer Benjamin Millepied. Salonen also leads a pair of works Boulez championed during his tenure as the NY Phil’s Music Director: Bartók’s kaleidoscopic Concerto for Orchestra and Stravinsky’s Octet for winds.

Salonen Conducts Boulez & Bartók

David Geffen Hall

Under the direction of Omer Meir Wellber, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra is adding a colorful accent to the season: THE BLUE WEEK. The new festival replaces the former Academy Concerts and combines unique works and programs on the one hand and showcases the special qualities of our orchestra musicians on the other. In the first edition, they make metamorphoses of all kinds audible - for example, in the first festival concert with Boulez's groundbreaking and enigmatic work Le Marteau sans maître, the instruments mutate into singing voices, while the singer repeatedly takes on a sound role without text. In a labyrinthine way, the work itself unfolds all its characteristics from a single small cell, as if from the sequence of our genetic information, from which first an embryo and then everything else emerges, without anyone arbitrarily intervening from outside.

1. Blue Concert THE HAMMER WITHOUT A MASTER

Hall 424 Jürgen Carstensen e. K.

With his meticulous, almost mathematical approach to sound, Boulez took 20th century music apart and rewired it, changing its internal logic. In this concert, London Sinfonietta explores the chaos found within his fixed systems, and the volatile consequences of depth and detail.

Boulez: Sonic Structures

Boulez: Sonic Structures celebrates the intoxicating music of Pierre Boulez, stepping into the intricate structures the French composer built throughout his career. With his meticulous, mathematical approach to sound, Boulez dismantled 20th-century music and rewired it, transforming its internal logic. The London Sinfonietta explore the chaos within his fixed systems and the volatile consequences of depth and detail. 

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Debussy’s La Mer, a thrilling sea voyage portrayed in rich orchestral colors, plus dances from Images. The NY Phil celebrates Pierre Boulez’s centennial with acclaimed pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing selections from Boulez’s Notations for solo piano in dialogue with the composer’s own orchestrations, as well as Debussy’s radiant Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra.

Salonen Conducts Debussy & Boulez

Leave your assumptions at the door and discover the unexpected similarities in the work of Pierre Boulez and John Cage with the London Sinfonietta. 

Following March's sold-out performance at the Southbank Centre, this intimate chamber concert now goes on tour - revealing a story of intriguing correspondence between two of the 20th century’s most iconic composers.

Leave your assumptions at the

Church of St Mary the Virgin

Hebrides Ensemble presents a programme celebrating the 150th and 100th anniversaries of Maurice Ravel, Luciano Berio and Pierre Boulez and features a new commission by Jasper Dommett. Ravel’s lush Introduction and Allegro and Mother Goose Suite (arr. Alasdair Nicolson) bookend Dommett’s Folds on Folds which explores themes of domestic sewing and fast fashion, inspired by Boulez’s own Pli selon Pli. The second half includes Boulez’s Anthèmes I for solo violin and Berio’s iconic Folksongs.

Ravel and Berio with the Hebrides Ensemble

Perth Theatre

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields unite again with pianist Jan Lisiecki. Lisiecki and ASMF bring a fresh approach to the music, pure joy in playing and the desire to make music together characterise orchestra and soloist alike. After concerts in Italy, Lisiecki and ASMF will perform at the George Enescu International Festival 2025.

Jan Lisiecki & ASMF George Enescu International Festival 2025

The Romanian Athenaeum

Contributing to the homage à Pierre Boulez, the Klangforum Wien Orchestra commemorates the 100th birthday of the composer and conductor by performing works by Maurice Ravel, Pierre Boulez and Edgard Varèse. Featuring soprano Sarah Aristidou, the concert at the Haus für Mozart is lead by Sylvain Cambreling.

Salzburger Festspiele – Guest Orchestras/À Pierre: Klangforum Wien Orchestra

Haus für Mozart, Salzburg

Klangforum Wien Orchestra · Cambreling

House for Mozart

Bolzano Bozen - Kammermusik

Laurin Bar

Das klagende Lied, Mahler’s musical coming-of- age, is a chilling fable of jealousy, murder and magic. An eerie woodland and a lively wedding ceremony are the centrepieces of a cantata of vast sonic imagination – a foretaste of the symphonies to come, heard here in its original three-part version. Mahler’s sonic scope meets its match in the musical spectacle of Pierre Boulez’s ‘majestic processional’ Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna. Dedicated to the composer’s long-time colleague and friend, the work transforms the concert hall into a temple, in which the audience is immersed in the sounds created by eight groups of musicians.

Mahler and Boulez

Royal Albert Hall

A stunning climax to this year’s Festival: the world premiere of Colin Matthews’ orchestration of Debussy’s Images plus Berlioz’s epic masterpiece Symphonie Fantastique.

Aldeburgh Festival: Fantastique!

Snape Maltings

The Frenchman Pierre Boulez and the American Elliott Carter met for the first time in Paris in the early 1950s. A friendship for life immediately developed between these composers. The Ensemble Musikfabrik and Bas Wiegers now commemorate these two important composers of modernism with cult pieces of new music. And one of the soloists is pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who owes a lot to Boulez and Carter.

Ensemble Musikfabrik

Museum Ludwig

Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin

Pierre Boulez Saal

Venzone - Residenzkonzert

Cathedral of Sant'Andrea

Pierre Boulez would have turned 100 this year. The Baden-Baden Festival Hall is celebrating the city's famous honorary citizen in several concerts - this one is certainly one of the highlights. Two "young" works by Pierre Boulez meet Anton Bruckner's great last symphony. It remained unfinished, but opens the door wide to modernity. Pierre Boulez greatly appreciated Bruckner, often conducted him and played a key role in making Bruckner one of the recognized great symphonists today. In addition, "Figures - Doubles - Prismes" by Boulez can be heard. The title of the work says it all: figures are varied, doubled. In the final section, "Prismes", the previous work appears in a new light, a kind of retrospective on the early work in 1957, re-examined in 1968. Then a vocal work by Pierre Boulez: The poems of EE Cummings inspired him to an experiment. Cummings used language beyond its meaning as material for new, complex and ambiguous language compositions. Boulez has transferred the form and structure of these poems into music with his own sovereign mastery, combining text and music into an exciting and poetic whole.

Guest concert: Pierre Boulez 100

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

François-Xavier Roth is unable to conduct this concert due to a shoulder injury. In his place, Maxime Pascal will conduct the concert with a modified programme. The concert will begin with excerpts from Boulez’ »Notations«. Boulez originally wrote the twelve miniatures for piano, which is why Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a true expert in modern music, will be the soloist for this concert.

SWR Symphonieorchester / Pierre-Laurent Aimard / Maxime Pascal

Pierre Boulez would have turned 100 this year. The Baden-Baden Festival Hall is celebrating the city's famous honorary citizen in several concerts - this one is certainly one of the highlights. Two "young" works by Pierre Boulez meet Anton Bruckner's great last symphony. It remained unfinished, but opens the door wide to modernity. Pierre Boulez greatly appreciated Bruckner, often conducted him and played a key role in making Bruckner one of the recognized great symphonists today. There will also be "Figures - Doubles - Prismes" by Boulez. The title of the work says it all: figures are varied, doubled. In the final section, "Prismes", the previous work appears in a new light, a kind of retrospective on the early work in 1957, re-examined in 1968. Then a vocal work by Pierre Boulez: The poems of EE Cummings inspired him to conduct an experiment. Cummings used language beyond its meaning as material for new, complex and ambiguous language compositions. Boulez has transferred the form and structure of these poems into music with his own sovereign mastery, combining text and music into an exciting and poetic whole.

Whitsun Festival: François-Xavier Roth conducts works by Boulez and Bruckner

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Dreams and fantasies from the revolutionary Pierre Boulez to Berlioz’s most rock’n’roll work, the Symphonie fantastique.

On Tour in Baden-Baden

With the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Antonio Pappano, global champions of the classical music scene come together at the Hamburg International Music Festival. The LSO stands out in the exuberant music scene of the UK’s capital city as an orchestra with international claim to leadership and has in Pappano a principal conductor whose global career seeks peers. In their programme, the musical power couple combines two French composers, who fearlessly pushed boundaries in their respective time: Hector Berlioz and Pierre Boulez.

London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Antonio Pappano

On Tour in Hamburg

Amongst the numerous top orchestras that make a guest appearance at the Hamburg International Music Festival is the Symphonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks under the leadership of its principal conductor Sir Simon Rattle. Together, they present music by two French composers who became famous for their inquiring spirit and gift for innovation: Pierre Boulez and Maurice Ravel. The highlight of the evening is Ravel’s ballet music »Daphnis et Chloé«, which carries the audience off into lush soundscapes.

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Sir Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Rattle 11

Pierre Boulez catapulted himself to the forefront of music pioneers in 1955 with his chamber cantata »Le marteau sans maître« (The Hammer Without a Master). Top young talents such as Ema Nikolovska and Sean Shibe, both Elbphilharmonie FAST LANE artists, juxtapose the Boulez with works by the next generation and the generation after that as part of the Hamburg International Music Festival with the motto »Future«: »12 Caprices« by James Dillon and »Bel Canto« by Cassandra Miller, which is dedicated to the opera diva Maria Callas.

Boulez and the Young Generation

Whitsun Festival: François-Xavier Roth conducts Boulez, Andre, Poppe and Ravel

Celebrate the centennial of Pierre Boulez, the unparalleled French composer, conductor, and cultural visionary, with a captivating duo piano recital. Born on March 26, 1925, Boulez transformed post-war contemporary music, leaving an indelible mark on the 20th century. His extensive conducting career and foundational role in institutions like Paris's Cité de la Musique and IRCAM highlight his monumental influence.

Celebrating Pierre Boulez 1925-2025

UCLA Nimoy Theater

Sir Simon Rattle 10

Gasteig HP8

Concert in Budapest

Müpa Budapest

7th Soirée

Vienna Music Society

Gendron, Sacks, Gross, and Beck in Piano Quartets of Milhaud, Boulez, Chausson

Bargemusic

Concert in Hamburg

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the baton of their esteemed Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen, returns for an evening of profound musical exploration with celebrated pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The concert marks Maestro Salonen’s 16th appearance conducting for CAMA over the past 30+ years—twelve with the LA Phil and three with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. The program features an intricate dialogue between solo and orchestral textures, showcasing the innovative works of Pierre Boulez complemented by three of Debussy’s radiant works, including La mer. Known for his deep connection with Boulez’s compositions, Aimard will perform solo pieces from the composer’s “Notations” along with corresponding orchestral versions, as well as Debussy’s “Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra.” Both composers pioneered revolutionary approaches to composition and timbre, making this pairing especially apt, inviting discovery and association.

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Granada Theatre

Following a dazzling flute quartet by Denis Dufour, the WENM performs two classical works for the same instrumentation by Pierre Boulez and Franco Donatoni.

Study Concert New Music

University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna

CSO Artist-in-Residence Daniil Trifonov, “without question the most astounding pianist of our age” (The Times of London), takes on Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, as remarkable for its rich orchestral writing as for its simultaneously glittering and muscular piano part. Dvořák’s turbulent Seventh Symphony is both an expression of the composer’s personal crises and a lyrical tribute to the Czech spirit.

Mäkelä & Trifonov

Symphony Center

Pierre Boulez's "Répons" was one of the notable highlights of Kent Nagano's "Philharmonic Academy" in St. Michaelis at the beginning of his tenure in Hamburg. He artfully staged the "exchange" between chamber ensemble and soloists as well as between electronically distorted and unaltered sounds in the hallowed halls of the Michel. The major "Elbphilharmonie" project was still a construction site at the time. Ten years later, Nagano is taking up this exceptional work by the composer, conductor and founder of the Paris IRCAM Institute again and bringing it to our new and yet already firmly established concert hall on the Elbe.

Opening Concert of the International Music Festival Hamburg

Watch the performance on this page at the scheduled date and time. This performance won’t be available to stream afterward on demand.

AXIOM

Lincoln Center

It is exactly 100 years since the birth of Pierre Boulez, the influential, groundbreaking composer and conductor who was closely associated with the Staatskapelle Berlin. He often conducted concerts by the orchestra, which appointed him honorary conductor in 2005 on the occasion of his 80th birthday. This year's FESTTAGE concert will feature music that is directly associated with Boulez, music by two composers with whom he had a special relationship, Alban Berg and Gustav Mahler. There will also be a composition by Boulez himself, the Notations for large orchestra, with which the Staatskapelle is very familiar thanks to repeated performances in the past.

Festive Concert Staatskapelle Berlin

Berliner Philharmonie

Carlos Ferreira won the coveted soloist prize at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in 2021 and is principal clarinetist with the renowned Orchestre National de France. As a rising star, he is now showing his passion for chamber music with clarinet.

Rising Stars: Carlos Ferreira & Pedro Emanuel Pereira

Absolute music. Boulez with a homage to Stravinsky, Manoury with a homage to Boulez and Lim with her work dedicated to a Persian Sufi master – these reverences are just the cause, but not the point of origin, the foundation, on which these three works are resting. This is all about music. Nothing outside music diverts the attention. Fixed structures contain glowing instrumental sounds – an inquiry into musical language and what it is capable of; the soul of sound without programme.

Explosion

Wiener Konzerthaus

The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s day-long deep-dive into the life and work of Pierre Boulez reaches a truly monumental climax. Across an evening that spans his whole creative career, pianist Tamara Stefanovich plays the brilliant Notations and Incises, and the BBC Singers join the BBC SO to perform the extraordinary, playful Cummings ist der Dichter.

Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez - Pli selon pli

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 introduced by BBC Radio 3’s Kate Molleson.

Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez - The Second Piano Sonata

Guildhall School of Music and Drama - Milton Court

Pierre-Laurent Aimard & Tamara Stefanovich

Gewandhaus

Journey up the Rhine River, as lovingly portrayed in Robert Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony. Listen for the flowing water and contemplate the majesty of the Cologne Cathedral. To begin, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider leads and performs the rich and alluring melodies of Bruch’s First Violin Concerto. Pierre Boulez’s iridescent Livre pour cordes marks the centenary of the composer’s birth.

Bruch & Schumann Rhenish

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Wheaton College

Emerging Artist Thomas Mellan presents Collective Hysteria: a celebration on Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday. Boulez is synonymous with music of era-defining extremes, showcasing brutal violence and sensual tenderness often in the same breath. The program centers around Boulez’s monumental Second Piano Sonata, from 1948. As Boulez said: “History as it is made by great composers is not a history of conservation but of destruction – even while cherishing what is destroyed.” In this spirit, Thomas will present a new original work titled “Rituel”, honoring Boulez, for piano and electronics. Premieres of new 30 for 30 piano pieces by organist/composer Rashaan Allwood, underground death metal legend Colin Marston and Ukrainian virtuoso violinist Orest Smovzh round out this celebration of a 20th century icon.

Thomas Mellan: Collective Hysteria

Colburn School

With Luciano Berio's song cycle Folk Songs, a tribute to the mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian, and two characteristic and groundbreaking compositions from Pierre Boulez's oeuvre, the festival debut at the Tokyo Spring Festival marks the 100th anniversary of these two landmark composers. In addition, Philippe Manoury has developed a deep relationship with Japanese musical life. His Passacaille pour Tokyo is a reimagination of musical form in the spirit of Boulez.

Tokyo Harusai Spring Festival: Boulez & Berio 100

Tokyo Bunka Kaikan

Sir Simon Rattle 9

Munich Residence

Leave your assumptions at the door and discover the unexpected similarities in the work of Pierre Boulez and John Cage with the London Sinfonietta.

The Boulez/cage Letters

When the important French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez died in 2016, the Austrian Olga Neuwirth remembered her patron in an obituary in the "Zeit" newspaper - his way of "looking at music in a completely different way". One of these masterpieces is "Pli selon pli" - which is now preceded by a new work by Neuwirth.

Music of the Time – Pierre Boulez's 100th birthday

Commissioned by WDR, Radio France, Ircam-Centre Pompidou and Lucerne Festival with the support of the Pierre Boulez Foundation

Music of the Time - Pierre Boulez's 100th birthday

Cologne Philharmonie

In celebration of the 100th birthday of Pierre Boulez, conductor Daniel Cohen joins BBC NOW for an evening of 20th Century gems, kicking off with Boulez’s own Livres pour cordes. Unsurpassable beauty and depth run deep in this angular and fragmentary work, which is nothing but lyrical throughout.

Boulez at 100

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Jörg Widmann’s love of Schumann impelled him to reflect, reconsider and then weave his own instrumental tapestry in and around Schumann’s great song cycle Dichterliebe, sung tonight by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s Artist in Residence, Benjamin Appl. Geoffrey Paterson returns to Ensemble 10:10 to guide us through this and the contrasting musical landscapes of Alexander Goehr and Pierre Boulez(to honour his 100th anniversary), and introduce new music from Liverpool-born former Rushworth Composition Prize winner, Nneka Cummins.

Ensemble 10:10

Yoko Ono Lennon Centre

“To listen to Aimard in action is to feel the gears of a composition mesh in new ways,” writes the San Francisco Chronicle. In this thrilling meeting of artistic sensibilities, renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard gives audiences powerful new insight into the distinctive genius of his late teacher and collaborator, Pierre Boulez. “He likes to put interpreters at the border of what’s possible and what is not. If you like that, it’s incredibly exciting,” Aimard says of the influential composer. Piano works by Boulez are featured alongside carefully selected pieces by Bartók, Ravel, and Schoenberg in this unique matinee recital.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano

Carnegie Hall

Considered a “brilliant musician and an extraordinary visionary” (The Wall Street Journal), French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated career. As a master performer of Beethoven, Aimard recorded Beethoven’s entire catalogue of piano concertos and both the “Hammerklavier” Sonata and “Eroica Variations.” He is widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time and has had close collaborations with many leading composers including György Ligeti, whose complete works for piano he has recorded. Praised by The Guardian as “one of the best Messiaen interpreters around,” Aimard has had a close association to the composer himself and with Yvonne Loriod, with whom he studied at the Paris Conservatoire.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

The Royal Conservatory of Music

Players from Royal Northern Sinfonia and the orchestra’s Principal Conductor Dinis Sousa.

Once upon a time

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

Fantasy and folklore lead the way in our continuing birthday celebrations of French musical royalty, Maurice Ravel and Pierre Boulez.

Notations finds Boulez at his most bold and brilliant, reimagining a series of jewelled piano miniatures for orchestra.

Pianist Betrand Chamayou joins the orchestra for Ravel’s left hand Piano Concerto, whilst Mother Goose carries us off to an enchanting world of make believe. Tom Thumb, Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty find Ravel at his most sumptuous.

Pictures at an Exhibition

The Bridgewater Hall

François-Xavier Roth

Brauß was praised by Gramophone Magazine for "the maturity and sophistication of her thoughtful interpretations." She is currently establishing herself as one of the most exciting and versatile musicians of her generation. As a former member of the BBC New Generation Artist Scheme, she continues to perform regularly in recitals, chamber music, and solo concerts in the UK. In 2021, she made her debut at the BBC Proms.

4th Symphony Concert

Staatstheater Darmstadt

Based around Ravel’s Miroirs suite for solo piano, the program includes responses to the suite’s five movements in more contemporary repertoire. Chinese-American pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu has been praised as “one of the most exciting pianists of our time… a deep thinker, thoroughly in command” (The Arts Desk). Recently winning BBC Music Magazine’s 2024 Newcomer Award, he is establishing an international reputation as a fearless and probing interpreter of a wide array of music, combining “stunning virtuosity” (Boston Music Intelligencer) and “phenomenal technique with a profound sense of interpretative clarity” (Apple Music).

George Xiaoyuan Fu, piano

Kaufman Music Center

Ensemble-in-residence at UC Davis, the Empyrean Ensemble presents engaging and eclectic programs, inviting audiences to experience new musical sensations delivered with high artistry by its extraordinary players—among the finest new music performers in California.

Empyrean Ensemble

Ann E. Pitzer Center

This cutting-edge concert is a vital part of Carnegie Hall’s Pierre Boulez centennial celebration, combining the creative forces of the International Contemporary Ensemble with the latest breakthroughs in responsive music-performance technology. It features a world premiere that incorporates the machine-learning advancements of SOMAX 2, developed with researchers at IRCAM (Boulez’s world-renowned institute for computer and electro-acoustic music and innovation). The program also includes works by Boulez and leading composers inspired by his legacy, including longtime IRCAM researcher and visionary composer Philippe Manoury; genre-defying American multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey; and the late Kaija Saariaho.

International Contemporary Ensemble

Join us for a captivating evening of music as we celebrate the centenary of Pierre Boulez with "Boulez 100: Chamber Concert" performed by the London Symphony Orchestra Chamber Ensemble. This special event will take place at the Milton Court Concert Hall on Monday, 27 January 2025, at 7:30 pm.

The concert promises a fascinating exploration of Boulez's work, featuring pieces that showcase the innovative and intricate compositions of one of the most influential figures in contemporary music. The program includes:

- "Messagesquisse" (7 mins)
- "Dérive 1" (7 mins)
- "Fanfare for the 80th Birthday of Georg Solti" (5 mins)
- "Sonatine for Flute and Piano" (12 mins)
- "Anthèmes 2 for Violin and Electronics" (24 mins)

Under the baton of François-Xavier Roth, one of the world’s leading Boulez conductors, and featuring violinist Benjamin Marquise Gilmore, the LSO Chamber Ensemble will guide you through a riveting journey into the musical labyrinth of Boulez's creations. The concert will conclude at approximately 8:30 pm.

Tickets are priced at £15 and £18, with a £4 booking fee per online/phone transaction. However, you can save on your booking with our Wildcards for guaranteed entry, Multibuy Discounts of up to 40%, and special rates for groups, students, and 18s-and-under.

This event is not just a concert but a celebration of music's eternal mystery through the lens of Pierre Boulez's groundbreaking compositions. Don't miss this opportunity to experience the depth and breadth of Boulez's genius performed by the world-renowned LSO Chamber Ensemble.

Book your tickets now and be part of this unique musical celebration.

Boulez 100: Chamber Concert

Milton Court Concert Hall

A concert all about conversations, numbers and musical echoes. A solo cello is in dialogue with six comrades in Messagesquisse where the rhythms are inspired by Morse code. Another group of six features in Dérive 1, while in Anthèmes 2 a violin generates its own electronic response.

LSO Chamber Ensemble/François-Xavier Roth

Join the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) for a remarkable evening dedicated to the legacy of Pierre Boulez, a towering figure in contemporary music. This special concert, part of the LSO Futures series, is set to take place at the Barbican on Sunday, 26 January 2025, at 7pm. Under the baton of François-Xavier Roth, a fervent champion of Boulez's work, the orchestra will explore the profound influence of Boulez through a blend of his compositions and those of his beloved Debussy, alongside the excitement of three world premieres.

The concert will feature Debussy's "Gigues" and "Ibéria" from "Trois images pour orchestre," showcasing the composer's revolutionary musical language and precise sound worlds that Boulez so admired. Boulez's own "Notations Nos 1, 2, 3, 4 & 7" will be presented, pieces that began as piano compositions and were later transformed by Boulez into vivid orchestral works.

Adding to the evening's allure are world premieres by Olga Neuwirth, Rafael Marino Arcaro, and Lara Agar, co-commissioned by the LSO. These pieces draw inspiration from Boulez's pioneering spirit and innovative use of color and form, promising a night of fresh and engaging music.

The concert is not only a tribute to Boulez in his centenary year but also a celebration of the future of music, with the LSO at the forefront of commissioning and performing new works. The event will conclude at approximately 8:50 pm, including a 20-minute interval.

Tickets are available in various price ranges, with discounts offered for multiple bookings, young people, students, and groups. For those looking for a unique experience, Wildcards offer guaranteed entry with seat allocation on the day of the concert. This is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of contemporary classical music and to celebrate the enduring legacy of Pierre Boulez with the London Symphony Orchestra.

LSO Futures: Homage to Pierre Boulez

Er wolle, entschied Beethoven 1802, »einen neuen Weg einschlagen«. Und der führte zu seiner wohl persönlichsten Sinfonie: der »Eroica«. Sie ist eine Wegmarke, ein Meilenstein – und passt damit ideal zu Pierre Boulez, dem vor 100 Jahren geborenen Revolutionär des Tönenden. Ungemein einfallsreich, poetisch, gar nicht widerspenstig, ja überraschend entspannt sind seine zwölf Miniaturen für Klavier, die er 1945 als »Notations« zusammengefasst hat. Sie wurden Meilensteine einer neuen Ästhetik der Musik und sprechen noch heute das Publikum ganz unmittelbar an. Der Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Boulez-Experte durch und durch, wird sie spielen – und jene »Notations«, für die Boulez selbst Orchesterfassungen entwickelt hat, bilden den großbesetzten Kontrapunkt dazu. Mit eingewoben wird noch Ravel, seine »Miroirs« bilden den Nachklang für alle, die nicht genug bekommen können von neuen Wegen, poetischen Ideen und faszinierend revolutionären Klängen.

Eroica

Alte Oper

In 1802, Beethoven decided he wanted to "embark on a new path." And that path led to what is perhaps his most personal symphony: the "Eroica." It is a landmark, a milestone—and thus a perfect fit for Pierre Boulez, the musical revolutionary born 100 years ago. His twelve miniatures for piano, which he compiled in 1945 as "Notations," are immensely inventive, poetic, not at all defiant, indeed surprisingly relaxed. They became milestones of a new aesthetic in music and still speak directly to audiences today. The pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a Boulez expert through and through, will perform them—and those "Notations," for which Boulez himself developed orchestral arrangements, will form the large-scale counterpoint. Ravel is also woven into the program; his "Miroirs" provide an echo for all those who cannot get enough of new paths, poetic ideas, and fascinatingly revolutionary sounds.

Debussy and Bartók through the prism of Pierre Boulez: the centenary of the conductor and composer is a pretext for exploring two totems of 20th-century music, to which the French master brought his proverbial precision and a kind of laser-like illumination that was his trademark. A style that is not foreign to the style of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. The highlight: Le Soleil des eaux , set to poems by René Char, underlines the Debussyist lineage of the creator Boulez.

The Sun of the Waters / J.-E. Bavouzet

Maison de la Radio et de la Musique

Exactly one hundred years since Pierre Boulez was born. Conductor, composer, theoretician, how can we sum up this figure, whose tutelary shadow continues to hover over the past century? Philippe Manoury, who was a close friend, pays tribute to him, and after his whimsical Notations , the Orchestre National de France remembers the immense Wagnerian that was Boulez: the first act of Die Walküre resurrects memories of a certain Bayreuth festival.

The Valkyrie / Ratings

Cité de la Musique

2025 marks the centenary year of the legendary composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, and Sir Simon Rattle kicks off the LSO’s celebrations with Éclat. An exploration of sound itself, for Rattle it’s ‘one of Boulez’s seminal pieces, a piece where you not only conduct, but you almost compose as you go along'. 

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle

**Boulez, Benjamin, and Brahms 4: A Musical Celebration with the London Symphony Orchestra**

Join us for an enchanting evening of music as the London Symphony Orchestra presents "Boulez, Benjamin, and Brahms 4" at the Barbican on Thursday, 9 January 2025, at 7 pm. This special concert, under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle and featuring the extraordinary soprano Barbara Hannigan, promises a bewitching programme that contrasts the glittering soundscapes of Pierre Boulez, the lyrical world premiere from George Benjamin, and the grandeur of Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4.

**Programme Highlights:**
- **Pierre Boulez:** Éclat – 8 mins
- **George Benjamin:** Interludes and Aria from Lessons in Love and Violence (World Premiere) – 15 mins
- **Interval**
- **Johannes Brahms:** Symphony No. 4 – 42 mins

**Performers:**
- **Conductor:** Sir Simon Rattle
- **Soprano:** Barbara Hannigan
- **Orchestra:** London Symphony Orchestra

The concert will conclude at approximately 8:35 pm, including a 20-minute interval. 

**Ticket Information:**
Tickets are available at various price points (£70, £55, £39, £26, £18) with a £4 booking fee per online/phone transaction. Special discounts are available, including Wildcards (£12/£16) for guaranteed entry with seat allocation on the day, multibuy discounts of up to 40%, and special rates for groups, students, and 18s-and-under.

**About the Concert:**
2025 marks the centenary year of legendary composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, and Sir Simon Rattle pays tribute with a performance of Éclat, a seminal piece exploring the essence of sound. The concert also features a world premiere from George Benjamin, created as a gift for Rattle’s 70th birthday, alongside Brahms’ tragically grand Symphony No. 4, full of melody and warm orchestral colours.

This concert is not just a performance but a celebration of musical innovation, creativity, and the enduring legacy of these composers. Join us for an unforgettable night of music with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican.

**Booking and Additional Information:**
For tickets and further details, please visit the LSO website or the Barbican website. You can also book by phone or in person at the Barbican Centre. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the magic of live music with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Boulez, Benjamin and Brahms 4

The Notations span the life's work of French composer Pierre Boulez, who is regarded as one of the central figures of New Music after the Second World War. In 1945, he first created his 12 Notations for solo piano - a debut work consisting of twelve pieces of twelve bars each with a clear connection to the twelve-tone technique. Around three decades later, Boulez expanded the miniatures for piano into the powerful-sounding Notations for orchestra, which are characterised by an expressionist intensity and a melodic and rhythmic complexity. Under the direction of Cornelius Meister, who was once Boulez's assistant, this key work of New Music will be combined with Anton Bruckner's eighth Symphony.

2. Symphony Concert

Beethoven Hall (Beethovensaal)

Diotima Quartet

The Studio Hall

Our Symphonic Series opens with music born from great conflicts of the 20th Century. Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony dates from the darkest days of the Second World War, when making music scarcely seemed possible. He dedicated it to all victims of oppression. Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot begins a season-long celebration marking 150 years since Maurice Ravel’s birth with Concerto for the Left Hand. Composed for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I, Ravel’s concerto spans the expressive power of the whole keyboard and bubbles with dark energy. We also salute the centenary of musical powerhouse Pierre Boulez.

Ravel & Shostakovich

Benaroya Hall

Join us for an exquisite evening of piano music with Yun-Hua Chang, a talented Doctor of Musical Arts student under the guidance of James Giles. This recital is set to take place on Thursday, May 2, 2024, at 6:00pm CDT in the Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall, located within the prestigious Ryan Center for the Musical Arts at Northwestern University.

The program promises a journey through the works of renowned composers, featuring J. S. Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542 (transcribed by Franz Liszt), Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 13 in A Major, D. 664, Pierre Boulez's Douze Notations pour piano, and Alexander Scriabin's Sonata No. 3 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 23. This selection showcases the breadth of piano literature, from the Baroque to the 20th century, offering something for every classical music enthusiast.

Admission to this event is free, and tickets are not required, making it an accessible opportunity for all to experience the power and beauty of live piano music. Additionally, for those unable to attend in person, a live stream will be available, ensuring no one misses out on this captivating performance.

The Galvin Recital Hall, with its stunning views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline, coupled with its exceptional acoustics, provides the perfect backdrop for an evening of musical excellence. Don't miss this opportunity to support emerging talent and immerse yourself in the transformative power of music.

Composer

Pierre Boulez

Events

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Past events

3 - 5 Dec, 2025

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Nov 20, 2025

London Symphony Orchestra/Maxim Pascal · Barbican Centre

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