Process and completion

Read this on the way to the Manchester RNCM Stockhausen festival:

Boulez is a composer for whom the technical perfection is absolute, and this technique serves him as a basis for the formation of an unalterable personal style. His objective is the work of art, mine is rather its workings. (KHS quoted in Worner Stockhausen Life and Art)

obviously written before all Boulez' works in progress. Then in the session with David Fallows and David Horne, David Horne said something to the effect that:

KHS has written so much about his works, the exploration with the pupil is part of the process. With Boulez you're left to discover it all for yourself.

I attended the prelude and left - regretfully - before the apotheosis Luzifer's Tanz. It was an afternoon I enjoyed, particularly the 5pm concert with Piano Piece IX, Refrain and Kreuzspiel. The textures of Refrain have become common currency, what must it have sounded like in 1959!
An afternoon with good numbers in the audience, you could almost hear the listening going on! Lots of students RNCM staff and men in their 50's and 60's (stereotyping a little!)