Uploaded September 2010 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Priaulx Rainier was born on 3 February 1903 at Howick, Natal, South Africa, of English-Huguenot parents. Her early childhood was spent in a remote part of the country near Zulu land, where the liquid language and music of the indigenous people, the sounds of wild animals and the calls of the birds were to prove a lasting influence.
As a violin student, at the age of ten, she entered the South African College of Music and, under the stimulating influence of the Principal, W. H. Bell, played a great deal of chamber music. In 1920 the University of South Africa Overseas Scholarship brought her to the Royal Academy of Music where she studied violin. Subsequently she settled permanently in London.
Priaulx studied briefly with Nadia Boulanger in Paris followed, before the outbreak of theWar.
She also met Michael Tippett at Morley College which thereby became a centre of considerable activity. Here Priaulx became acquainted with Tippett himself, as well as with the conductor Walter Goehr; the critic and administrator William Glock, the composer and teacher Matyas Seiber; the concert promoter Gerald Cooper; the singer Peter Pears, and many others. She was especially at home in the company of writers (David Gascoyne, Arthur Waley), artists (Lucian Freud, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson), and dancers (Pola Nirenska).
Among her many friends Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson occupied a special category. Their ideas about space-construction and geometric forms of abstract art found a receptive listener in Priaulx as she herself forged her own style; moreover Hepworth's belief in the reality of the world of ideas, and of the new vistas opened up by abstract scientific thought, struck forcibly home with the composer; who went so far as to buy a studio in St Ives, where Hepworth and Nicholson lived. There was, however, a primitivism at the heart of Rainier's music which called for particularly personal expression, and which was at variance with the tradition of Western classical music. As long as she used notes of determinate pitch it was necessary for her to come to terms with tonality; for pitched notes imply tonality if not necessarily a key The risk she ran was that her use of chromaticism might become uncontrolled, chaotic.
In June 1982 the University of Cape Town honoured her with a Doctorate in Music (Honoris Causa).
Priaulx Rainier died in France on 10 October 1986.
[In case you have not noticed, one of the themes of this channel -- in facet one of the reason for its existence -- is the appreciation of women modernist composers of the 20th century. Our favorites include Priaulx Rainier, Elisabeth Lutyens, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Barbara Pentland -- and we are always on the lookout for more. If you have suggestions please send us a message here on YouTube. Thank you very much.
Priaulx Rainier was born on 3 February 1903 at Howick, Natal, South Africa, of English-Huguenot parents. Her early childhood was spent in a remote part of the country near Zulu land, where the liquid language and music of the indigenous people, the sounds of wild animals and the calls of the birds were to prove a lasting influence.
As a violin student, at the age of ten, she entered the South African College of Music and, under the stimulating influence of the Principal, W. H. Bell, played a great deal of chamber music. In 1920 the University of South Africa Overseas Scholarship brought her to the Royal Academy of Music where she studied violin. Subsequently she settled permanently in London.
Priaulx studied briefly with Nadia Boulanger in Paris followed, before the outbreak of theWar.
She also met Michael Tippett at Morley College which thereby became a centre of considerable activity. Here Priaulx became acquainted with Tippett himself, as well as with the conductor Walter Goehr; the critic and administrator William Glock, the composer and teacher Matyas Seiber; the concert promoter Gerald Cooper; the singer Peter Pears, and many others. She was especially at home in the company of writers (David Gascoyne, Arthur Waley), artists (Lucian Freud, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson), and dancers (Pola Nirenska).
Among her many friends Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson occupied a special category. Their ideas about space-construction and geometric forms of abstract art found a receptive listener in Priaulx as she herself forged her own style; moreover Hepworth's belief in the reality of the world of ideas, and of the new vistas opened up by abstract scientific thought, struck forcibly home with the composer; who went so far as to buy a studio in St Ives, where Hepworth and Nicholson lived. There was, however, a primitivism at the heart of Rainier's music which called for particularly personal expression, and which was at variance with the tradition of Western classical music. As long as she used notes of determinate pitch it was necessary for her to come to terms with tonality; for pitched notes imply tonality if not necessarily a key The risk she ran was that her use of chromaticism might become uncontrolled, chaotic.
In June 1982 the University of Cape Town honoured her with a Doctorate in Music (Honoris Causa).
Priaulx Rainier died in France on 10 October 1986.
[In case you have not noticed, one of the themes of this channel -- in facet one of the reason for its existence -- is the appreciation of women modernist composers of the 20th century. Our favorites include Priaulx Rainier, Elisabeth Lutyens, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Barbara Pentland -- and we are always on the lookout for more. If you have suggestions please send us a message here on YouTube. Thank you very much.
![Renè Koering, Sonate - Michaël Levinas, piano [part 2 of 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JMz1q6nEoFg/mqdefault.jpg "Renè Koering, Sonate - Michaël Levinas, piano [part 2 of 2]
Ecrite en 1974, elle fut créé au Festival de Royan et donnée quelques jour plus tard à Boston per Herbert Henck. Maurice Fleuret, que y voyait la grande sonate romantique après Berg na sy trompait guère, puisque je voulais écrite une sonate dont les racines étaient chez Berg et qui de là rencontrait le languate qui était naturellement le mien : celui de la grande 2e Sonate de Boulez.
Les différents « moments » de le œuvre simposaient tout naturellement comme par exemple le fugato au début de lœuvre dont multiples voix allaient se résorber dans les « étoiles » du scherzo de la fin. Un autre élément que je ne voulais par éviter, st celui de la virtuosité pianistique, qui appliquée avec un certain sadisme, fait évoluer souvent la phrase dans un sens non prévisible.
Nombreux sont les passages qui, rédigés ou distribuées autrement aux deux mains du pianiste, lauraient amenée vers dautres possibilités sonores ce choix né du tumulte me fait parfois penser à ce que lon appelait autre-fois « un programme ». Sans me lavouer, ce programme préexistait mais quel peut-il être ?
A la musique de répondre.
René Koering
Né à Andiau (Alsace) en 1940, René Koering étudia la musique à Darmstadt dans les années Soixante. En 1961, création de sa première œuvre, commande des « Musiktage » de Donaueschingen. En 1967, il se voit attribuer le Prix de la « Fondation de la Vocation » et le Premier Prix de la Fondation Maeght. Ses œuvres (musique symphonique, concertos, œuvres électroaccostiques, musique de chambre et opéras) furent données dans divers festivals. Depuis 1971, il enseigne à lEcole des Beaux-Arts. Vice-Président de la Société Internaitonal de Musique Contemporaine, il occupe pas ailleurs dimportantes fonctions au sein de Radio France.
Michaël Levinas
Son père est le philosophe Emmanuel Levinas. Après des études au Conservatoire de Paris (Yvonne Loriod, Olivier Messiaen) où il obtient de nombreux premiers prix, Michaël Levinas effectue des stages au GRM, suit des cours à Darmstadt (Xenakis, Stockhausen, Ligeti) et, en 1974, devient co-fondateur puis responsable de lensemble lItinéraire. Pianiste concertiste international, il enseigne lanalyse au Conservatoire de Paris depuis 1992.
Dès les premières œuvres, en marge du sérialisme, Michaël Levinas développe un style singulier dune extraordinaire puissance expressive.")
