Performance on 3 - Aldeburgh Festival 2010 - Ensemble Intercontemporain

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)