Boulez Quatrieme Sonate?

[soliloquy]

Boulez Quatrieme Sonate?

[mad_max2024]

?

[soliloquy]

I knowwwwww!  Like omg.


Apparently it was premiered during a concert celebrating his birthday!  I didn't even know this piece existed!  I NEED SHEETS >=O

[mad_max2024]

I had no idea what you were talking about
Just thought it would be an appropriate reply
&$#& forum turned the ? ? ? to smileys though
 

[ahinton]

Boulez's 80th birthday was, of course, celebrated last year and the première of the Quatrième Sonate was evidently given on 19 February (in a fascinating concert series to mark that birthday which also included the world première of Carter's Réflexions, composed for the occasion. The 19 February concert was the last in the series and evidently consisted of Incises and Douze Notations, played by Hidéki Nagano, the Deuxième Sonate played by Dimitri Vassilakis and the Troisième Sonate and Quatrième Sonate played by Michael Wendeberg. Curiously, the Quatrième Sonate was not billed on that occasion as a première. I have not yet heard it or seen its score. All the performers on this occasion were, perhaps unsurprisingly, pianists closely associated with Ensemble Intercontemporain. Clearly, this programme was designed as a Boulez piano conspectus without the Première Sonate. Even though almost a year has elapsed since this occasion, I have to confess to being as sorry as I am ashamed to admit that this is still just about all that I know and can say about Boulez's Quatrième Sonate; this puzzles me not a little, for one would have imagined that there'd have been plenty of information around by now. Indeed, I cannot so far even run to earth any reviews or details about subsequent performances of the work.

Sorry not to be more helpful right now.

Best,

Alistair

[jre58591]

i wonder how big the score for this sonate is. probably the size of a piano...

[soliloquy]

I'm waiting for responses that will possibly be able to enlighten us from Ian Pace and Brian Ferneyhough atm; I would suspect that either of them would at least know SOMETHING.  I've also been looking around on the net about it and have stumbled across a few other sites mentioning it, but again, very little information is divulged.  It is apparently, or at least one movement is (I do not know how many movements there are), open form.

[ahinton]

I now realise that my remarks above contain a material error; Boulez's 80th birthday was, of course, celebrated in 2005, not last year as I wrongly indicated; this fact demonstrates not only my carelessness (for which I offer due apology) but an even more puzzling situation in that so little information on the Quatrième Sonate appears to be available even after almost two years since its apparent première.

I contacted a couple of authorities, neither of whom had heard of such a work and would accordingly check into the matter to try to ascertain more. In the meantime, it occurs to me to wonder about it as follows. The recital in which it appears to have been performed was on 19 February 2005 and its programme billed thus:

BOULEZ ANNIVERSAIRE 3
Cité de la Musique
Samedi 19 février 20h

Pierre Boulez Incises *
Pierre Boulez Deuxième Sonate **
Pierre Boulez Douze Notations *
Pierre Boulez Troisième Sonate ***
Pierre Boulez Quatrième Sonate ***


solistes de l'Ensemble Intercontemporain
Hidéki Nagano (*)
Dimitri Vassilakis (**)
Michael Wendeberg (***)


On the face of it, this seems to indicate an intended conspectus of Boulez's extant work for piano solo with the significant exception of the Première Sonate. I cannot help but ponder, therefore, whether "Quatrième Sonate" here might have been a misprint for "Première Sonate", although I would have thought that some correct information might have emerged since had that really been the case.

The mystery continues; if I find out anything that seems to be definitive, I will post again.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

This Quatrième Sonate is now increasingly appreaing to assume mythical status among Boulez's output. I ckecked Ensemble Intercontemporain's website; there is no mention of it in its listing of Boulez's works and the ensemble's list of soloists no longer includes Michael Wendeberg among its pianists; furthermore, Wendeberg himself appears not to have a website of his own to check. No other listing of Boulez's music that I have encountered refers to this work, either.

Having exhausted just about every other possible avenue of enquiry, I have written to George Benjamin on the assumption that he would likely know not only of its existence or otherwise but why and how mention of it got on to that programme in the first place; I'll pass on any information that I am able to glean from this or any other reliable source as and when (or rather if) I get any.

Best,

Alistair

[soliloquy]

Am still waiting on replies from Ferneyhough and Pace.  This sort of reminds me of the Boulez Troisieme Sonate fourth movement- impossible to find, hard to verify it exists, almost no information on it, no recordings etc.  Maybe the Qautrieme Sonate is another one of his "retracted" works?

Here you can find the same "typo":

https://www.passion-histoire.net/phpBB_Fr/viewtopic.php?p=112590&sid=95484ef212ac611ffacb8524baad7cd9


If you search through various internet search engines it actually shows up with surprising frequency :O

[ahinton]

I have just received the following message from George Benjamin on the above topic:

That must have been a misprint; I've never heard the slightest mention of Boulez's fourth sonata and am sure, sadly, that it does not exist.

Whilst obviously not quite carrying the same weight of authenticity as would a direct response from Maître Boulez himself, the fact that Mr Benjamin has "had Boulez's ear" (so to speak) for some quarter century is sufficient to warrant my belief that this now more or less wraps this topic up once and for all.

He does not identify for what it was a misprint on this occasion, but my vote - as suggested previously - goes to the composer's Première Sonate.

Best,

Alistair

[iumonito]

Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.

I am glad you posted that.  I was quite upset with Boulez for doing a fourth sonata before finishing the third.   

[jre58591]

i was actually kinda excited. i would have liked to investigate that sonata. well, it may perhaps get written anyways.