Pierre Boulez

As a composer, conductor, mediator and organiser, Pierre Boulez is one of the central figures in post-war music history. He has come a long way from being an aggressive rebel who never shied away from provocation or a linguistic point to becoming a highly respected artist. Pierre Boulez was born in Montbrison in 1925. His parents had encouraged him to study maths, but Boulez decided against it in favour of music. Nevertheless, a highly rational, scientific element characterises his approach to music. Numerical orders play a major role in his work, even if they remain hidden from the listener. Boulez studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1943 onwards. Olivier Messiaen’s analysis courses and later René Leibowitz’s intensive study of twelve-tone technique and the music of the Schoenberg school, especially Webern’s, were the formative influences of that time. Boulez was also enthusiastic about literature and, in particular, the poetry of French modernism. After graduating, Boulez took over the musical direction of Jean-Louis Barrault's newly founded theatre group for ten years, until 1956, and now also appeared in public with compositions such as the Piano Sonata or the first version of ‘Le Visage nuptial’. In 1952, Boulez took part in the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music for the first time, where he became the most important spokesman for the avant-garde together with Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen. With the premiere of the chamber cantata ‘Le Marteau sans maître’ in 1955, Boulez finally established himself as one of the leading composers of the time.

One constant in Boulez’s impressive compositional oeuvre is constant change. Change initially determines the external form of the work. Again and again, Boulez turns to already completed compositions, revises them and creates new versions, which often have the character not only of a new version, but of a new work. Above all, however, constant change characterises the music itself. Regardless of the period from which it originates and the means by which it is realised, his music is in a constant state of inner movement, development and change. The areas of expression traversed are stretched between two opposing poles, an impetuous, sometimes nervous, sometimes aggressive wildness on the one hand and a bitter-sweet, lyrical tenderness on the other. The result is a fascinatingly dazzling, fleeting sonic kaleidoscope of colours and moods.

The question of how to perform new music as faithfully as possible became increasingly urgent for Boulez, and so he quickly ventured onto the conductor's podium himself. In the 1960s, he rose to become a conductor of international renown, bringing traditional works to life in performances that set new standards. The most important stages in this were conducting ‘Parsifal’ in Bayreuth (1966 to 1970), taking on leading positions with the New York Philharmonic (1971 to 1977) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (1971 to 1975) and conducting the ‘Jahrhundertring’ in Bayreuth (1976 to 1979). Since then, Boulez has recorded numerous discs. He continually conducts concerts by the best orchestras of our time.

In the 1970s, Boulez founded two musical institutions with a worldwide reputation and appeal. In 1975, he founded the Ensemble intercontemporain, a solo chamber formation for contemporary music, which became a model for similar avant-garde groups such as the Ensemble Modern or Klangforum Wien. Two years later, largely on Boulez’s initiative, IRCAM was opened at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, dedicated to exploring the possibilities that electronics opens up for music. There is hardly a composer of note born after 1950 who has not received significant inspiration for his work and for the utilisation of modern technologies for music at IRCAM. Boulez also had a significant influence on other projects, such as the founding of the Cité de la musique and the Opéra Bastille, until he decided at the beginning of the 1990s to devote his time exclusively to composing and conducting. His work has been honoured with the highest international awards and prizes. Pierre Boulez died in Baden-Baden in January 2016 at the age of 90.