Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

[bhodges]

Let's all wish Pierre a happy 85th birthday!

Huzzah!

Yes indeed!   

--Bruce

[greg]

He says thanks.

[karlhenning]

And he apologizes for having called Paul Simon Al.

[petrarch]

And he apologizes for having called Paul Simon Al.

Brought to mind the song Pierre Boulez by The Neem . I got it way way back from the old mp3.com site, would advise any serious Boulez fan to check it out.

[Sylph]

Reporting from New York - Pierre Boulez, everyone says, has mellowed. A half-century ago, he was famed as a maestro with a frighteningly formidable ear, a French composer of frightfully formidable music and a polarizing polemicist.

In the '50s, heaccused the old tonal composers of being irrelevant. In the '60s, he proposed blowing up old-fashioned German opera houses as an elegant solution to their hostility toward producing modern work.

But now Boulez is widely, warmly embraced. Having just turned 85 on Friday, he is no longer feared but feted as one of the great men of music, present and past, in a town that knows what that means. Boulez celebrated his birthday by conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in its ornate, historic home, the Austrian capital's Musikverein. Future musicologists will no doubt mark the splendid occasion.

I met with Boulez in his hotel room in New York on a bright but freezing Sunday morning in late January. He was gracious, agreeable, witty, smart, quick, charming, self-assured, without airs. He was in good spirits and opened the blinds to let the sunshine pour in. But that hardly means he has gone soft. He has not lost his sardonic laugh. His standards are as demanding as ever. His calls for change have not changed. Boulez the progressive is still at it.

The rest is here.

[Coopmv]

The rest is here.

Very interesting article.  My first recordings by Pierre Boulez were the Wagner Ring Cycle on Philips LP.  Hopefully, I will find time to spin the records once again after I bought the set some 25 years ago ...

[Josquin des Prez]

Irrelevant composer who's claim to fame resides entirely on his large mouth.

[knight66]

Even if you don't like his music, I don't see how you can deny his musicmaking.

Mike

[CRCulver]

Hopefully he'll also finish Eclat/Multiples...

I've heard from multiple Boulez scholars that  Eclat/Multiples will never be finished. If Boulez followed his original plans for the work, it would extend hours more. The incomplete manuscript at the Sacher Foundation would last about 50 minutes, and it's only two parts out of a foreseen five parts. Meanwhile, the piece has already gained a reputation for being expensive to put on.

[CRCulver]

According to Boulez himself the original plan was to have a piece at about 40 minutes in length, currently the existing torso is a little over 25 minutes or so (that Sony recording)... so I was thinking he was a lot closer to finishing it. Perhaps he'll figure out something to do with the existing music there.

I refer you to this Usenet thread where I first raised the question. Considering that the Notations are unfinished and the composer is still looking ahead to Anthemes 3, I wouldn't get my hopes up.

[karlhenning]

Irrelevant composer who's claim to fame resides entirely on his large mouth.

Says an irrelevant non-composer whose claim to any attention resides entirely on his large mouth.

[jochanaan]

Everyone is a work in progress.  And with major composers, the "progress" continues long after their deaths...

[knight66]

Don't you start on that Mozart stuff again!

Mike

[Josquin des Prez]

Even if you don't like his music, I don't see how you can deny his musicmaking.

There is no musicmaking, there's only organization of sound. The distinction today appears to be no longer understood, and that is why you have people confusing genius:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_aOhmEki8EPo/SPocDi-bp_I/AAAAAAAAc68/F-3vqs68yjg/The+prophet+Jeremiah+by+Michelangelo.jpg

with trash:

http://echostains.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/picasso-weeping-woman-1937.jpg

Dostoevsky tried to warn us about the dangers of revolutionary individuals and their eternal quest for "progress", which at the end of the day its just a way of substituting truth with desire. Alas, we have failed to heed his warning, and so here we are. 

[lisa needs braces]

Irrelevant composer who's claim to fame resides entirely on his large mouth.

score.

[lisa needs braces]

Note how his fame doesn't even rest with being appreciated by music fans. It's all about personality.

[lisa needs braces]

Oh yes there definitely is musicmaking, you just have a puny brain & no ears, and because of these obvious limitations don't get upset and talk shit about something you know absolutely nothing about.

It seems that a lot of people have puny brains and no ears, going by the fact that there isn't much of a demand in the classical music listening world (as judged by what orchestras and radio stations program) for the music of Boulez, and by when (if ever) orchestras do program him the audience has to be lured in with something else...

[knight66]

There is no musicmaking, there's only organization of sound.

That is a singularly silly remark. Your prejudices make you deaf and your deafness is the context for your wrongheaded remarks. Had your deafness been clinical, that would be an excuse; but it is willful...so really, there is nothing to be done with you.

Clearly you enjoy marginalising yourself.

Mike

[CRCulver]

It seems that a lot of people have puny brains and no ears, going by the fact that there isn't much of a demand in the classical music listening world (as judged by what orchestras and radio stations program) for the music of Boulez, and by when (if ever) orchestras do program him the audience has to be lured in with something else...

That's a curious claim, as certain ensembles like the EIC do entire programs of Boulez and Boulez-inspired music and have no problem drawing an audience. Concerts of Boulez works in France regularly sell out.

Boulez's following may be small, but there's lots of niches in the classical music scene. As I pointed out the other day, it seems most people can't stand leider, and that's all part of the canon. But over the years I've been amazed at just how wide a following Boulez has among classical music filesharers. And in any event, he seems to evoke more devotion than figures like Danielpour who write what they think audiences want.

[mc ukrneal]

Can't we all just get along!