Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

[Brian]

He lived a long, incredibly productive, meaningful life and was a musical icon as both a Bad Boy Rebel and an Older and Wiser mentor figure. We should all be so lucky.

[Brian]

Here are some more Boulez pics from the blog "Composers Doing Normal Shit".

[betterthanfine]

RIP maestro! I will definitely have to play some of his music today.

[Brahmsian]

Sad news indeed.  Such a prolific conductor, and composer.  I have the set of complete Webern works, conducted by him, and am fond of his recordings of Bartok's piano concertos.

My favourite memory of him is a concert I watched on PBS about 5 or 6 years ago, him conducting Mahler's 7th Symphony with the San Francisco SO (he was filling in for a sick Michael Tilson Thomas), if memory serves me correctly.  A magical concert, which really helped solidify my new found love at that time of Mahler's 7th symphony.

Rest In Peace, Maestro.

Had this wrong.  He (Boulez) was filling in for Riccardo Muti, who was ill.  Boulez conducted the Chicago SO, not the San Francisco SO.  I think it was October 2010

[(poco) Sforzando]

This was inevitable at his age and scarcely surprising. Few musical minds have so dominated the past century and achieved so much. I'm rarely sentimental about such things, but I shall have to put on Pli Selon Pli or Le Marteau today. I was fortunate to have seen him conduct numerous times - both his own music, including Marteau, Sur Incises, Répons, both Dérives; and works by others like Stravinsky, Ravel, Berg, and above all Mahler, whose 3rd and 6th received coruscating performances with the LSO at Carnegie Hall that belied his reputation for sterile exactitude. (I don't think his studio recordings, especially for DGG, always did him justice.) I was also fortunate to have met him briefly backstage after a beautiful performance of Marteau at Carnegie's Weill Hall, and he was nice enough to sign my score. I only regret that he never brought Pli Selon Pli to our shores, as in my opinion it is his masterpiece.

[André]

I think I have a disc where he plays Ravel (gets up and put the miner's lamp on for a 15 minnute search). Yes, I do !

I also have some of his Mahler and Bruckner. Since I don't much care for his Bruckner and am not in the mood for MAhler today, I'll settle for the Ravel. Menuet antique will do.

[Super Blood Moon]

I've always loved his conducting.

[Mirror Image]

Sad news, but inevitable as I believe he was in very poor health the last few years of his life. I think I'll listen to his first recording of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle as a tribute to a great musician.

[Florestan]

RIP.

[Mirror Image]

His Mahler is really the best Mahler around....in fact, i can't think of any of his recordings as a conductor that have been bettered in the repertoire he specialised in (especially 20th century music) by anyone else!

This could be debated of course. Not to derail this thread.

[knight66]

A pity, though it was a long life. It took me a long time to appreciate him. I was in chorus for a Mahler 8 he conducted at the London Proms about 1974. It was both a good and a bad experience and I steadfastly ignored him and his work for 20 or so years. Gradually I came very much to appreciate his conducting, Mahler, Stravinsky, Debussy; but not his Wagner. Very few have had his influence and the time across which he could watch that influence have its effect.

I will go and listen to something of his now.

Mike

[ritter]

This is a sad day, but I at least can only say, with all my heart, "THANK YOU!" for all what Pierre Boulez has given us over his long and illustrious career, as composer, conductor, essayist and teacher. His art and his thinking have accompanied me for almost 40 years now, and every time I experienced him live (from the Ring in Bayreuth in 1979 up to a Mahler Sixth in Berlin in 2008) was an occasion to cherish.

Now listening to the CD with Éclat/Mutiples and Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna:

[Mirror Image]

He was a remarkable musician. I didn't care for his music at all, but really admired many of his recordings as a conductor of other composers. Having not heard so much a peep out of him for several years, I knew something was wrong or certainly going wrong. The many hours of joy, wonderment, and sheer passion this man has brought me through the music of Bartok, Ravel, Debussy, Berg, Schoenberg, etc. is something I can never forget and I think we all should raise a glass to Boulez's memory. R.I.P. Maestro Boulez.

[Florestan]

I didn't care for his music at all

nor for his pronouncements on other people's music.

[Lisztianwagner]

from the Ring in Bayreuth in 1979

Boulez wasn't suitable to Wagner, in my opinion; the clarity, precision, rhythmic agility of his conducting style were better for the 20th century composers. Das Rheingold of the Centenary Ring is pretty good anyway, especially because of a superb Zednik as Loge.

[Parsifal]

I most recently explored the recordings he made for Columbia/Sony and found many of them to be truly extraordinary. The same for his Erato legacy. I always found his recordings for DG to have unpleasantly congested sound which didn't suit the clarity that was his signature style.

I also found his non-electronic compositions to be uniquely fascinating, although I always had the sneaking suspicion that I wasn't quite getting it.

[springrite]

Not my favourite Mahler, but his Mahler recordings were the ones that helped me understand (hear) what's in the music and truly begin to appreciate them, especially 7 and 6.

Can't think of another French conductor doing great Mahler worthy of investigation. (Maybe I just did not notice?)

[vandermolen]

Loved his Debussy recordings of la Mer and Nocturnes on an old DGG LP. I do not know of better versions:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35241250

[not edward]

... above all Mahler, whose 3rd and 6th received coruscating performances with the LSO at Carnegie Hall that belied his reputation for sterile exactitude.

This, so many times over. Live, Boulez's performances (and in particular his Mahler) were anything but analytical and unemotional. The LSO 6th in London in 2000 remains one of the most memorable performances of anything I've been lucky enough to attend.

As a composer I wish he had written more, and revised less. But the best of what he left us is something to be cherished.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Pli selon pli d'un linceul effroyablement triste.