Monday, March 26, 2012

Pierre Boulez as Composer & Mahler Conductor

Two playlists to celebrate the 87th birthday of Pierre Boulez, French composer, conductor and winner of 26 Grammys. First one collects his compositions in reverse chronological order, with a brief and appropriate intro at the beginning: seven extracts of his most important works, from the DG compilation Pierre Boulez at 80: The Conductor and The Composer. Boulez often rework and expand earlier works dramatically; I included all the versions available on Spotify.


Works in this playlist includes (with dates of completion/revision):
Second playlist is the complete Mahler recordings Boulez made with DG, including the ten symphonies (plus an individual recording of Totenfeier from "Resurrection"), Das Lied and two albums of other songs; arranged in the order of composition date. I also put Boulez's only Bruckner recording to date, a monumental 8th, at the end.

Here are the Spotify playlists: Boulez as Composer: Reverse Chronological Collection With Intro (111 tracks, total time: 14 hours); Boulez Conducts Mahler & Bruckner (99 tracks, total time: 16 hours). Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.

Happy 87th birthday; still waiting for Godot.



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