Boulez & Webern: Œuvres pour quatuor à cordes - Anthèmes 1

The soloists of the Ensemble intercontemporain pay tribute to its founder, Pierre Boulez, and present one of the young composer's most radical works: the Livre pour quatuor, the fourth movement of which was not fully completed in the 1950s. Finalised in 2017 by Philippe Manoury and Jean-Louis Leleu, the work was the subject of in-depth study by the musicians of the EIC, on the occasion of the centenary of Boulez's birth in 2025, focusing on the movement that had emerged from obscurity; it is this revised score that is presented here. 'In keeping with the spirit of the Livre', writes Leleu, its performance is fragmentary and invites exploration of other scores, 'that can themselves shed light on its links with the past.' Jeanne-Marie Conquer, Diego Tosi, Odile Auboin and Renaud Déjardin have also recorded Webern's Five Movements, Op. 5 (1909), as well as his String Quartet, Op. 28, premiered in 1938. The viola transcription of Anthèmes (1991), which EIC violist Odile Auboin realized in 2006 under the composer's supervision, completes this programme, which is being released to mark the EIC's 50th anniversary.