Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

[karlhenning]

I think Boulez is pretty cool. (Just saying.)

[Scarpia]

Psst, how is it going? (For the record, I picked up the Sur incises disc cheap, too.)

Still waiting it's turn in the CD player...

[Henk]

I wonder what Boulez is composing these days, maybe he's inspired by De Raaff.

[karlhenning]

Word is he's at work on an opera version of En attendant Godot.

[MN Dave]

As a composer, Boulez makes a great conductor.

[Scarpia]

Wonder what Boulez is composing these days, maybe he's inspired by De Raaff.

Eh, probably too busy firebombing cars on the streets of Paris in retaliation of the reform of the French pension system to composer music these days. 

[karlhenning]

As a composer, Boulez makes a great conductor.

Not so good as copper, though.

[DavidW]

If Boulez is a great conductor, then he must be a lousy insulator!  Doesn't leave you warm and snug.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Word is he's at work on an opera version of En attendant Godot.

Chances are we'll be waiting as long as Vladimir and Estragon . . . .

[karlhenning]

Chances are we'll be waiting as long as Vladimir and Estragon . . . .

The potentialities for poetical justice are indeed très riche.

[Philoctetes]

The best justice is when the great composers like Bach, Beethoven and Boulez are elected to the Pantheons of posterity, while the fakes and the imitators and the hate mongers are given a taste of Dante's and Gyorgy Kurtag's Inferno...   

I like Boulez and all (especiallly his Structures), but pantheon? ... but posterity? You're being quite hyperbolic.

[DavidRoss]

It does look silly, though on the face of it, one isn't quite sure if it is an act of hostility or of homage to Boulez . . . .

Clearly homage...but with a wicked sense of humor!

Intentional humor, of course, unlike this, which has us rofling partly because the humorless author is painfully unaware of its ridiculousness (which would ordinarily be cause for pity, but it's hard to feel sympathy for someone who's so...er...charming):

The best justice is when the great composers like Bach, Beethoven and Boulez are elected to the Pantheons of posterity

Is there more than one Pantheon?  Hmmm, learn something new every day.   

[DavidRoss]

And the flamings that are this site's stock and trade continue.

Uh...that's "stock in trade."  Look to the beam in your own eye...or should that be "beak." 

It's all very well for you to love Boulez.  Nearly everyone here would support you in that.  But when you start attacking others as imbeciles because they don't share your love, you ask for responses in kind.  Happily, most folks here are much too gracious to be so nasty; gentle chiding is more our style.

[DavidRoss]

Such self-righteousness, from the internet flamers! I did not attack anyone, I responded to attack, to attack on Boulez as well as myself. To dislike Boulez (or any other composer) is OK, to resort to smearing or downgrading expression of dislike, is not.

Nor did I call anyone an imbecile. If there are those out there who feel like imbeciles, well, their complex of inferiority is their problem and their responsibility

Insinuating that others don't share your views only because they're intellectually inferior is "attacking them as imbeciles," regardless of your choice of words.  For instance, you recently referred to one of Karl's observations as:

A mistake only a moron would make. But the topic here is a great and successful composer, Pierre Boulez, exclusively.

But though your heartfelt concern for the sensitivities of others is appreciated, you needn't worry: nothing about your posts is likely to make anyone feel the least bit inferior. 

[DavidRoss]

Dear mods:  No worries, I will withdraw from this engagement.  In my defense I plead only that such aggressive superciliousness does not bring out the most generous side of my nature.   

[DavidW]

Dave I doubt anyone but Toucan was pissed at you pointing out why he has a WATCHED under his post.

[knight66]

What a strange opinion you have of your impact: 'hate'.....people in WWII hated Hitler. Folk hated the murderer Myra Hindley. Many have expressed hatred for the banks, institutions they blame for many of the current woes in society; but hate for you, no. Most posters here keep matters in appropriate proportion. I do however detect that contempt is growing amongst the troops.

Saul was not banned. He left, I predict he will return, he often has.

This thread is supposed to be about Boulez; I once was in a performance he conducted, I have a growing interest in understanding him, so perhaps the thread could be returned to its primary objective....now.

Knight

[Benji]

I enjoy his orchestrated Notations on the Wien Modern disc:



I've not heard the piano originals, but the orchestrations are so convincing and complex that it's difficult to imagine them existing in any other way. I will try to seek them out for contrast. 

On the disc above, the orchestrations are played in this order: I, IV, III, II. This makes sense because it gives the sequence a sense of symphony-like wholeness: Moderate, Fast, Moderate, Very Fast and Furious.

I love the busy, schizophrenic  nature of II; it reminds me very much of the first of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra. Manic!

[snyprrr]

Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra.

Off topic!!

[Joaquimhock]

According to what I've read in a French newspaper, he has suffered an eye injury and underwent an emergency eye surgery in Chicago last week.