A.  Boulez composed Sonata No. 3 in 1959 and I immediately wrote to the publisher for a copy.  It wasn't published yet but they sent me a photostat of the score in his writing.  I set to work to copy it which was quite a task.  It turned out to be a twenty page manuscript.

Q.  When did you first play it?

A.  I went to Europe in '61 and heard Boulez play it.  Later, I looked him up to make corrections to my copy.  I premiered Sonata No. 3 in 1962 at the Monday Evening Concerts.  Boulez was at Harvard University in 1963 and he asked me to play Sonata No. 3 on a program of his music.  It was then that I got my lesson from him about how it should be played and he was most interested in the sonorities over anything else.

Q.  How has literature influenced Sonata No. 3?

A.  The literature of Mallarme and Joyce were a big influence.  Mallarme's words "A die cast will never abolish chance" inspired Boulez to lay down musical fragments on the score like a poem on a page.  The performer is then given indeterminate choice as to how to play the piece.  The consequences of that choice are strictly controlled by the composer and the relations between choice and control are literally part of the musical effect.

Q.  How is the work organized?

A.  It is divided into formants entitled Antiphonie, Trope and Constellation.  Trope and Constellation have been published but I am one of the few people who have Antiphonie because it has never been published.

Q.  What indeterminate choices have you made in playing Sonata No. 3?

A.  The order I have chosen is to play Antiphonie, followed by Constellation and ending with Trope.  Antiphonie is a small introduction in a-b form that can be played four different ways.  Constellation is the immovable still center of the Sonata and is made up of blocks of sound (chords) printed in red and points of single notes printed in green.  One must play red after greenor green after red and the choices within the two colors are determined by arrows which give the effect of a labyrinth.  You can play them in 1,000 different orders, choosing your way through the music as if you are traveling through a maze.  The challenge is how to make continuity out of little fragments.  Trope is in circular form with no beginning and end.  You can start at any point but I have chosen to play it as Boulez played it.  Every note is marked and there are so many effects that you have to think each one out.

Q.  Do the other pieces in your program have any relationship to Sonata No 3?

A.  The other pieces are smaller and of a different character.  They all lead up to Sonata No. 3.  I start the program with Schoenberg's Op. 33a, always a joy to play.  The small piece by Anna Rubin, a former student of mine at Cal Arts, was dedicated to me for my 85th birthday.  Six Episodes by HK Gruber are tonal but influenced by 12-tone.  I have known Gruber for many years and he experimented with 12-tone but found it was unwelcomed in his native Vienna.  His music is often influenced by popular culture.  In fact, you'll hear an influence of the Beatles in the Second Episode.

Q.  Your program continues to gain momentum from beginning to end.  Tell us about the smaller works in the second half of your program.