The Perfect Gift Dept. - Les Percussions de Strasbourg's 50th Anniversary 15CD boxset

Fifty years in the life of an ensemble is exceptional, if not unique. 'Les Percussions de Strasbourg' has become a name, a label: one of French excellence.
Les Percussions de Strasbourg is the history of a group of musicians that has enjoyed exemplary success, inventors of a tradition, and behind a half-century of musical premieres. The attraction of the greatest composers of our time for this group of six percussionists has allowed for creating, in a few decades, a repertoire that has already taken its place in the history of written music (Xenakis, Amy, Mâche, Dufourt, Grisey, Levinas, Manoury, Matalon…)

This limited-edition 15-CD boxed set brings together some of the most important milestones in this fifty-year adventure. It offers testimony in sound with a varied panorama of works written at the group's behest and defended in the foremost venues the world over. From historic recordings of Messiaen and Boulez to the most recent creations, here in world premiere recordings (On space by Juan Pampin, Ondoyant et divers by Edmund Campion and Les Arpenteurs de François Paris), the 50th Anniversary Edition allows for taking a new look at the repertoire by paying homage to the founders, as well as to those who have urged on the group, and also putting into perspective the second generation of Les Percussions de Strasbourg, whilst also tracing tomorrow's perspective lines. Numerous Philips recordings, previously unreleased on CD, complete this portrait of an historical ensemble.

Rare photos from the group's archives illustrate the sleeves within the box, and the booklet offers an fascinating interview of individuals who embody the group today – Jean-Paul Bernard, its artistic director, and Olaf Tzschoppe –, as well as accounts by eminent artists of percussion.

CD 1
MESSIAEN
Sept Haïkaï
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum
Couleurs de la Cité Céleste
Yvonne Loriod, piano
Les Percussions de Strasbourg
Orchestre du Domaine Musical / Pierre Boulez

CD 2
BOULEZ
Le Marteau sans maître
Jeanne Deroubaix, contralto / Severino Gazzelloni, flute / Georges van Gucht, xylorimba
Claude Ricou, vibraphone / Jean Batigne, percussion / Anton Stingl, guitar / Serge Collot, alto
Pierre Boulez
AMY
Cycle
MANOURY
Le Livre des Claviers
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 3
HAUBENSTOCK-RAMATI
Jeux 6
Les Percussions de Strasbourg
BOUCOURECHLIEV
Archipel 3
Georges Pludermacher, piano
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 4
VARESE
Ionisation
CHAVEZ
Tambuco
Toccata
CAGE
First construction (in metal)
CAMPION
Ondoyant et Divers

CD 5
STIBILJ
Epervier de ta faiblesse, Domine
Claude Petitpierre, recite
SILVESTROV
Mystères
François Hébral (flûte alto)
Les Percussions de Strasbourg
DENISOV
Nuages Noires
Georges van Gucht, vibraphone
Apparitions et disparitions
Christian Hamouy, Vincent Vergnais
Rayons des étoiles lointaines dans l'espace courbé
Keiko Nakamura, Guillaume Blaise, Jean-Paul Bernard
KABELAC
Huit Inventions, op. 45
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 6
SEROCKI
Continuum
APERGHIS
Kryptogramma
XENAKIS
Persephassa
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 7
SCHAT
Signalement
Jean Hème, Robert Quattrochi, Léon Vienne (contrabasses)
Les Percussions de Strasbourg
PUIG
Provisoires agglomérats
Claude Petitpierre recite, Karen Fenn (contralto)
Chorale expérimentale de Paris
Bande magnétique réalisée par Luc Perini dans le Studio du Groupe de Recherches Musicales de l’O.R.T.F.
Jean-Pierre Drouet (darabouka)
Les Percussions de Strasbourg
DENISOV
Concerto Piccolo
Claude Delangle, saxophones
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 8
SCHERCHEN
Shen
SHINOHARA
Alternances
OHANA
Quatre études chorégraphiques
LOUVIER
Candrakâla
Shima
TAIÏRA
Hiérophonie V
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 9
DUFOURT
Erewhon
Sombre journée
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 10
MONNET
Bibilolo
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 11

CD 12
GRISEY
Le Noir de l’Etoile
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 13
PAMPIN
On space
D’ADAMO
Die Runde Zahl
Les Percussions de Strasbourg
MATALON
Le Scorpion
Dimitri Vassilakis, piano
Les Percussions de Strasbourg

CD 14
MÂCHE
Maraé
Aera
Khnoum
Les Percussions de Strasbourg
Le printemps du serpent
Les Percussions de Strasbourg
Ju Percussion Group de Taïwan

CD 15
RACOT
Subgestuel
LEVINAS
Voûtes
PARIS
Les Arpenteurs
Les Percussions de Strasbourg