Piano Sonatas (Nos. 1–3)

The three piano sonatas span Boulez's most concentrated period of keyboard writing: No. 1 (1946) is a two-movement serial study; No. 2 (1948) is a formidable half-hour work that announced his arrival as a leader of the post-war avant-garde; No. 3 (1955–57/63) is an open-form, aleatory work of which only two of its five formants were published in the composer's lifetime.