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A spellbinding journey as Emmanuel Pahud plays a 70-minute solo programme in a near capacity audience in the 1600-seater concert hall.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra presents a superb programme executed with power and urgency to herald the return of public music-making at the Pierre Boulez Saal.

The third concert of A Festival of New Music also suggests the conflicts and split personalities which may come from extended isolation. 

The four pieces – all U.S. premières – created a portrait of Boulez minus Boulez, reminding me of a middle school art exercise in which we were asked to draw an egg without any white crayons.

So Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra continue on their odyssey demonstrating for us what Beethoven might mean in the 21st century. Barenboim’s back-to-the-future approach clearly to some seems anachronistic after years in which Beethoven has been the preserve of ‘period’ bands, and in which even the grandest and oldest of orchestras have altered their traditions.

The Klangforum Wien is such a disciplined ensemble that for them ever to be remotely fazed or challenged by a piece, even those works with Ferneyhough-like unfulfillable demands, is scarcely imaginable.

Pour ouvrir les festivités du centenaire de la naissance de Pierre Boulez, Pierre Bleuse et l'Ensemble intercontemporain ont livré entre autres une version mémorable du rare Répons.

Ein ergreifender Abgesang auf Pierre Boulez, in dem man die vom Komponisten hinterlassene Lücke nach dem letzten Werk fast greifen konnte.

Les concerts de musique d’avant-garde sont réputés difficiles. Pourtant, le concert donné à l’occasion du 90e anniversaire de Pierre Boulez s’est déroulé devant une salle pleine, ou presque, d’un public manifestement enthousiaste.

Pour le dernier concert de la série du Barbican "Boulez at 90", l’Ensemble intercontemporain jouait Boulez, mais aussi Yann Robin et Matthias Pintscher sous la direction de ce dernier. Une performance d'exception, superbe hommage au maître.