Boulez was a true visionary in the world of classical music, pushing boundaries and challenging traditions. His music remains essential listening, with works like Pli Selon Pli standing out as some of the greatest of the 20th century. His influence as a conductor was also immense, with his precise gestures and fantastic ear guiding musicians to new heights.
Those who had the privilege to work with Boulez, like Brindley Sherratt and Barbara Hannigan, speak of life-changing experiences and moments of pure musical magic. Boulez demanded commitment and excellence from his performers, but also had a cheeky sense of humor that endeared him to those around him.
Antonio Pappano highlights Boulez’s incredible ear for music, recognizing his genius in both composition and conducting. Boulez’s legacy lives on through his groundbreaking work and the impact he had on the world of classical music.
Later, as I got to know Boulez’s work as a conductor and played his music on the piano, I came to appreciate his sense of craft, structure, and its mathematical side.
He was an amazing colourist as a composer – try his pieces for orchestra, Notations. Their emotion and complexity is wondrous, and his orchestration is utterly beguiling. And, as a conductor, his ear was second to none. Through his ability to make textures clear and pure he helped the listener to listen better somehow.
The way he programmed and championed modern music makes him a hugely important figure in 20th-century music. But he didn’t like everything – the more tonally based music of Britten, Vaughan Williams or maybe even Shostakovich, didn’t appeal to him. I think that Boulez was responsible for sidelining a lot of music, if I’m honest – he was a controversial figure as well as being a champion. But as a conductor of Wagner, he made everything lighter, more transparent and text driven. And this was a revolution.
‘He wanted to shock’
Martyn Brabbins, conductor
Boulez made people think. He wanted to shock and provoke: postwar, that was what was needed to move things on in music and culture. The radical statements of his youth – burn down the opera houses and suchlike – were probably intended to be provocative as much as anything else – he did after all of course conduct in opera houses later in life.
All music requires creative engagement from the listener, but Boulez’s compositions particularly were not designed to be consumed in a passive way. There’s a cerebral nature to the works that requires one to anticipate being taken on an unexpected journey. If you go to a concert with the wrong ears on – your Rachmaninov ears rather than your Boulez ones, say, you’re going to be in trouble!
I saw him conduct several times and was always struck by its austerity: he conducted more from the head rather than the heart. When I met him however – he was at a performance I conducted of his Pli Selon Pli in Edinburgh more than 20 years ago, he was charming and complimentary. I think the austere facade belied the reality of the man inside, much like his music, which is sensuous, beautiful and exotic.
‘He told me to imagine water dripping from my fingers’
Tamara Stefanovich, pianist
Boulez wanted to jolt us out of our comfort zone where music was merely a bourgeois pastime; he ignited the necessity for us to be in contact with art of our own time. I’d gone through my early musical education cheerfully unaware of him as a conductor and composer until one winter morning in Cologne I saw a poster with his name and Structures II on it and I bought a ticket. It was the beginning of a lifelong connection with the man and his ecstatic music.
His Second Piano Sonata has been a source of energy for more than 20 years. I was forced to pause my career for much of the 90s due to the Balkan wars and consequent visa problems, and this work became my inspiration, and restarted my career. I worked for eight months on this Mount Everest of piano literature, and its mix of courageous, revolutionary and youthful energy transformed me and eclipsed my limitations.
This led to further collaborations including my playing with him as a conductor and a Grammy-nominated recording. He taught me so much. To put care into the breath, the shape of the phrase and to bring the right balance of discipline and freedom to each note. He talked about his music and playing using metaphors of bee hives, or waves; he told me to imagine water dripping from your fingers. His maxim – responsibility is at the very beginning of each creative force – remains my manifesto. If given the possibility to respond we should definitely use this ability responsibly.
‘It felt as if you could hear him listening’
Maxime Pascal, conductor
I was a student when I first came across Boulez’s music – a borrowed recording of his Second Piano Sonata. I was hypnotised by the sound and the dazzling dimension of his piano writing. It felt full of fury and yet there was a total freedom to it. It was music that seemed to come from a raw, deeply emotional place. It opened my ears to a whole new world.
Later, when I moved to Paris to study, Boulez was very active: he regularly conducted the Orchestre de Paris, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and had many projects with Ircam [the Pompidou centre-based Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique that Boulez founded]. As a conductor he influenced and inspired me more than any other. I recall listening to his recording of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. The tempo was slower than usual, and what struck me was how it felt as if you could hear him listening. You could sense his extreme attention to detail. It was as though he invited you to experience the piece through his own meticulous way of hearing it.
Working with him, he gave me two key pieces of conducting advice. It has to be firm, and it has to be flexible. His entire conducting style was built on this balance. It is extremely assured and precise, yet incredibly free.
Where to start with his music? I’d suggest works that incorporate electronics. Anthèmes II, or Répons – one of the first mixed-music works ever written, and still one of the best. Le Marteau sans Maître is also extraordinarily powerful. The first time I heard it, at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, I only realised as I heard the applause that I had been so absorbed I had been sitting completely tense and immobile and now I had pins and needles throughout my body.
‘He taught me to stand my ground’
Olga Neuwirth, composer
Olga Neuwirth.
La música de Boulez es un recurso indestructible para encontrar tu propia voz, para inspirar a compositores a desafiar las normas de un negocio de música clásica, incluso con furia si es necesario, como él lo hizo en sus primeros años tanto en su música como en sus declaraciones. Me enseñó a mantenerme firme en los ensayos, algo que no siempre se considera apropiado para los compositores, especialmente para las mujeres.
Répons es la obra suya a la que más vuelvo por su combinación visionaria de espacio, instrumentos tradicionales y transformaciones electrónicas en vivo en un flujo de tiempo y colores. Era un hombre de amplia lectura, un pensador rápido, un curioso cosmopolita y un diplomático erudito, que me enseñó, y a todos nosotros, a escuchar. Espero que su música se siga tocando dentro de 100 años. Ars longa, vita brevis.
El Boulez 100 de la Orquesta Sinfónica de Londres, con los directores Simon Rattle y Maxime Pascal, incluye estrenos mundiales de obras de George Benjamin (con la solista Barbara Hannigan) y Olga Neuwirth, se llevará a cabo los días 9, 26 y 27 de enero. El día de Inmersión Total Boulez de la Orquesta Sinfónica de la BBC, con Martyn Brabbins como director, será el 30 de marzo e incluirá a Tamara Stefanovich interpretando las 12 Notations e Incises de Boulez. Todos los eventos se realizarán en el Barbican, Londres.