Symphony Orchestras celebrate Boulez's 85th birthday

A month-long celebration in January, Pierre Boulez @ 85, will pay tribute to the legendary French composer and conductor with a series of concerts from Chicago to Carnegie Hall.

To honor the 85th birthday of its Conductor Emeritus, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) will release a rare recording of the complete 1920 Stravinsky ballet Pulcinella Symphony in Three Movements/Four Etudes with Boulez. The recording will be available on iTunes on January 19, as a worldwide CD release on January 21, and in the US on January 26.

Considered the last great proponent of European modernism, Boulez is a foremost interpreter of Igor Stravinsky, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Richard Wagner, Arnold Schoenberg, Maurice Ravel, and Claude Debussy. Formerly with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, he has spent decades with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and conducts around the world.

After a two-week salute to the maestro by the Chicago Symphony, the conductor will lead the orchestra in pieces including his own canon, 1968's "Livre pour cordes" ("Book for Strings"). On January 16, Boulez conducts the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in New York and then, after a series of concerts in Chicago January 21-23 and a chamber music session January 24, returns to the New York venue January 30-31 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

www.cso.org

www.carnegiehall.org

RC