Four-disc box set presentation is an anthology of Pierre Boulez's early compositions; complex, radically new and quite ferociously uncompromising. Such fearless, notoriously demanding works as the second Piano Sonata may be heard alongside the gorgeous ultra-modernist exoticism of Le Marteau sans matre and Pli selon pli. These breathtakingly ambitious works are complemented by the first recordings of Boulez as conductor, made at the Domaine musical, a society he formed in Paris during the mid-50s to provide a platform both for modernist pieces by the likes of Webern, Messiaen and Stockhausen and works which had played a vital role in the evolution of music by such composers as Debussy and Bartok.