Boulez at 100: Total Immersion - Pli Selon Pli

Introduced by Kate Molleson. Live from the Barbican in London, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, pianist Tamara Stefanovich and soprano Anna Dennis perform landmark works by Pierre Boulez.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Total Immersion 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.

And then soprano Anna Dennis joins an expanded BBC Symphony Orchestra for a rare complete performance of Boulez’s single largest work, his five-movement epic masterpiece, Pli selon Pli. Part Mallarmé song cycle, part self-portrait and part era-defining manifesto for the possibilities of musical modernism, every performance is a major occasion. Boulez himself recorded it with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, making it the perfect way for the orchestra to salute the 100th birthday of its most revolutionary chief conductor.

Boulez: Deux Études, musique concrète for tape
Boulez: 12 Notations
Boulez: Incises
Boulez: Cummings ist der Dichter

c.7.45pm
During the interval, Kate is joined by Jonathan Cross and Gillian Moore to consider Boulez's legacy - a discussion recorded earlier in the day at the Barbican.

c.8.15pm
Boulez: Pli selon pli

Tamara Stefanovich, piano
Anna Dennis, soprano
BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Singers
Martyn Brabbins, conductor