Bartók: Hungarian Sketches, BB 103, Sz. 97 (Hungarian Pictures)

This second volume of Irén Marik's art consists mostly of unpublished recordings made in studios and at home from 1955 - 1983. Her highly individual and structural approach explores a carefully chosen repertoire. An insight further developed while Marik studied with Bartók is applied to all the composers she performed.

The 2009 Kyoto Prize for Music, bestowed once every four years since 1985 by the Inamori Foundation, has been awarded to Pierre Boulez. This great distinction, similar in intent to the Nobel Prize, recognizes outstanding achievement in the fields of philosophy, arts, science, and technology. Awards are to leaders in their respective fields as well as individuals whose work has contributed significantly to humanity.

In honouring Pierre Boulez as a leader “in the world of Western music since World War II”, the Inamori Foundation has referred to his all-embracing and path-breaking activities as composer, conductor, writer, teacher, lecturer, and founder/director of musical institutions as well as to the creative stimulus and influence he has exerted and continues to exert in each of these aspects of his extraordinary career. Congratulations to Maestro Boulez on the receipt of this singular honour!

"As composer and conductor, Boulez has done more than any other person alive to define the idea of what modern music is, and how it should sound.” The Guardian

Over the past 18 years Pierre Boulez has made a series of critically acclaimed recordings (including two Grammys) for Deutsche Grammophon of Bartók’s major orchestral works (principally with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), the complete concertos with leading international soloists and complete stage works. Here is the entire collection on eight CDs, gathered together in a single specially-priced box for the first time

The major orchestral works, complete concertos, complete stage works.

Soloists: Gil Shaham, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Krystian Zimerman, Leif Ove Andsnes, Hélène Grimaud, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Tamara Stefanovich & Jessye Norman in Bluebeard’s Castle.