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Performance on 3: Aldeburgh Festival 2010

Performance on 3: Aldeburgh Festival 2010: Episode 3: Ensemble Intercontemporain

Episode 3

Episode 3: Ensemble Intercontemporain

Aldeburgh Festival 2010

Ensemble Intercontemporain

BBC Radio 3 - Performance on 3, Aldeburgh Festival 2010, Ensemble Intercontemporain

Ensemble Intercontemporain/Pierre Boulez in music by Varese, Ligeti, Carter and Boulez.

With Petroc Trelawny. Pierre Boulez conducts Ensemble Intercontemporain in 20th century works. Varese: Octandre. Ligeti: Chamber Concerto. Carter: What are years. Boulez: Derive 2.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

One of the giants of contemporary music gives one of the major concerts of this year's Aldeburgh Festival - the composer/conductor Pierre Boulez, along with the Ensemble Intercontemporain. They perform works by some of the landmark composers of the 20th century, including Varese and Ligeti, and a brand new piece from the 101-year old Elliot Carter.

Boulez once said of Varese that he 'rejected the classical conception of the orchestra and of tonality', and in Octandre he uses incredible textures that give clarity to his rhythms, conjuring up entirely new sound worlds. Ligeti's Chamber Concerto achieves a similar rhythmic agility and multi-layer effects with a small ensemble, including winds, strings and piano.

Alongside these is another master of the 20th-century, Elliot Carter, with a new work for the 21st century. 'What are years' is a song-cycle to texts by Marianne Moore, an American poet most prominent in the 1920s. Carter describes how 'Marianne Moore's brilliant poetry with its sharp but personal fascination with life, has held my attention for many years, so I decided to write this song cycle which shows a few of her many sides'.

Boulez's own pieces he often calls 'work-in-progress', and Derive 2 for small ensemble is no exception, being reworked and performed at various stages of development.

Varese: Octandre
Ligeti: Chamber concerto
Elliott Carter: What are years
Boulez: Derive 2

Claire Booth (soprano)
Ensemble InterContemporain
conductor Pierre Boulez

Followed by Aldeburgh Revisited - performances by musicians with a close association with Benjamin Britten and the Aldeburgh Festival.

Debussy: En blanc et noir
Sviatoslav Richter & Benjamin Britten (pianos)

Mozart: Piano Quartet  K478 (First Movement) 
Kenneth Sillito (violin)
Cecil Aronowitz (viola)
Kenneth Heath (cello)
Benjamin Britten (piano)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Petroc Trelawny presents performances given at the 2010 Aldeburgh Festival

Petroc Trelawny presents performances given at the 2010 Aldeburgh Festival. With medieval and Renaissance repertoire, a religious work by Bach and newer music, from Boulez, Varese, Ligeti and Carter

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