On our blog, our contemporary composers present their favorite work from our catalogs. This time François Meïmoun introduces Pierre Boulez’s Sonate n°1.

"Pierre Boulez’s Sonate n°1 for piano is both a work of tradition and of modernity. The discussions about the piece that arose in the 1970s suggested that it represented a clean-slate - a seducing concept which gave an allure of prestige to the work, but which also make it lose its essence and originality.

The gestation of the work spanned several post-war years – a time when Boulez combined all he had assimilated since his arrival in Paris: the influences of Messiaen, Jolivet, Les Viennois, Bartók and others.  He intentionally and consciously drew precisely on this synthesis of everything he had acquired. The successive manuscripts of the Sonate n°1 revealed that this synthesis was the way for the creation of a new form of pianism, which emerged from the literature particularly of the composers Char and Artaud whom Boulez discovered.

Sonate n°1 is an isolated work that fights against its time, unlike the Sonate n°2 that makes reference to the history of the period. It is a definitive work, because it does not care to educate its audience.

Is a Sonata for the eye or for the ear? It is a work, to quote Jean-Louis Barrault, of broken movement. In this way it stands alone:, it is not like the music from previous decades. The risk is decidedly great, talking about works and their meaning. Today, the Sonate n°1, composed outside of the Classical beaten-track, is understood to be a unique page in the history of modern French piano."