Pierre Boulez : Composer, Conductor, Enigma (4CD)

Four-disc box set presentation is an anthology of Pierre Boulez's early compositions; complex, radically new and quite ferociously uncompromising.

Such fearless, notoriously demanding works as the second Piano Sonata may be heard alongside the gorgeous ultra-modernist exoticism of Le Marteau sans matre and Pli selon pli.

These breathtakingly ambitious works are complemented by the first recordings of Boulez as conductor, made at the Domaine musical, a society he formed in Paris during the mid- 50s to provide a platform both for modernist pieces by the likes of Webern, Messiaen and Stockhausen and works which had played a vital role in the evolution of music by such composers as Debussy and Bartok.

As a conductor Boulez flew high and fast, engaged as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic and as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra by William Glock, Controller of Music at the corporation, and fervent new music enthusiast: Boulez's ear was fabulous. It was as though he was attached by a hundred strings to every member of the orchestra.

Frank Zappa of The Mothers Of Invention bought his first Boulez album in twelfth grade. He is listed as an influence on the cover of Freak Out! (1966) under the heading These People Have Contributed Materially In Many Ways To Make Our Music What It Is. Please Do Not Hold It Against Them.