Pierre Boulez complete piano works performed by Marilyn Nonken

Marilyn Nonken performs the complete piano works of Pierre Boulez, including the rarely heard SIGLE movement of the Third Piano Sonata which Boulez composed in the 1960s but later rescinded.

Marilyn Nonken performing Boulez's Sonata No. 3

Of her March 2002 recital of these works, The New York Times wrote, "Ms. Nonken, a noted advocate of 20th-century music, has been on tour with two programs of formidably complex atonal and 12-tone music: the complete solo piano works of Arnold Schoenberg and the complete solo piano works of Pierre Boulez.... Hearing her perform these works in concert is inspiring.... Mr. Boulez's music must at least seem authentic, gnarly and awesome. From the first work, "12 Notations" (1945), Ms. Nonken captured those qualities, as well as the music's delicacy and refinement.... Achieving continuity is a challenge in the Sonata No. 1 (1946) and the daunting 30-minute Sonata No. 2 (1947-48). Both works evolve in fits and starts in which splattering volleys of pitches and steely chords are followed by flickering, ethereal figurations. Ms. Nonken brought impressive dramatic cogency to these works, as well as to the Sonata No. 3 (1955-57), which can seem like a series of disconnected, meterless gestures.... When she concluded the program with the short "Incises" (1994), a sort of Boulezian answer to the Prokofiev Toccata, it was as if we were hearing some favorite old thing." Of "Incises," The Washington post wrote, "'Incises' is charged with a bright, cold, hard brilliance, like a spray of crushed ice. It is dense with events -- even when it is silent for a moment, Boulez's music never really 'rests' -- but also far more generous in its emotional expression than much of his earlier work. Nonken proved a persuasive champion, all flash and agitation."

"Notations" (1945), written when Boulez was only 20, reveals his debts to the Second Viennese School as well as his teacher, Olivier Messiaen. These twelve short movements are wonderfully concise and colorful, offering a fresh breath of modernism.

The First Piano Sonata (1946) offers an early glimpse of Boulez's unique musical vision. It is a violent and passionate work. Cast in two opposing movements exploring the extremes of lyricism and percussiveness, the First Sonata distinguished Boulez as a composer to be reckoned with and hints at his mature style.

The virtuosic four movement Second Piano Sonata (1948) finds Boulez moving away from traditional forms and what he considered antiquated methods of composition. There are still traces of the sonata form in the work, such as the thematic transformations in the first movement and the scherzo form of the third. Yet the work--nearly 35 minutes--is radically abstract, as motivic materials are presented, manipulated, and pulverized, often at breakneck speed.

The Third Piano Sonata is Boulez's most experimental work. It explores the world of chance, and in both movements the performer makes crucial decisions regarding form and content. The sensual and ethereal music reflects Boulez's fascination with Mallarmé's final and revolutionary work, "Une coup de dés." Stravinsky wrote that "Boulez's Third Piano Sonata is as purely 'pianistic' as an étude by Debussy, yet it...exposes... a whole region of sound neglected until now." The work is radical in its treatment of the piano's sonority. Ms. Nonken will perform the rarely heard SIGLE movement which Boulez composed in the 1960s but later rescinded.

"Incises" (1994) was originally written as an obligatory piece for a piano competition. Toccata-like in conception, it is gesturally and harmonically accessible, conveying a tremendous energy not found in the earlier works.