Pierre Boulez

Today, numerous Boulez compositions are performed widely. The most well-known include: “Livres pour cordes,” three piano sonatas, “Éclat/Multiples,” “Rituel,” “Cummings ist der Dichter,” “Le Visage nuptial,” “Répons” and “Notations.”

As a conductor, Boulez's interpretations of the 20th century repertoire, particularly the versions of the second Viennese school and French impressionist works, have made him famous. He has worked at reinvigorating many masterpieces of symphony and opera, among these works by Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky and Bartok . But perhaps at the top of his list has been securing for contemporary music its rightful place in the music world.

"I am always trying to make sure that the audiences are in proportion to the pieces performed,” he says. “What I mean is, I remember when we gave a concert of Webern and Ligeti, and of course we had more than 2,000 people in attendance. If we give a concert with composers whose names are completely unknown, with very experimental tendencies, then I know that I cannot count on an audience larger than 200 to 400 people. I give these types of concerts in a smaller hall, one that will be full, rather than performing in the same large auditorium that would be either half-empty or half-full, depending on how you want to see it.”

Boulez’ reputation as one of the world's great musical minds and his interest in musical interpretation led to an invitation to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra: He was principal guest conductor from 1967 until 1972. Almost concurrently he received an invitation from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and in 1971 became its chief conductor. In the same year, Boulez succeeded Leonard Bernstein as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, a post he held from 1971-1977.

During the '70s, Boulez’s difference of opinion with his government about state intervention in the arts drove him into voluntary exile from France for several years. He only returned to his homeland in 1974 after the French government under President Georges Pompidou decided to build a Music Research Centre at the Centre Georges Pompidou. They invited Boulez to be its creator and director. Out of this institute, known as IRCAM, sprang one of the world's leading contemporary music ensembles, the Ensemble InterContemporain.

“I attended all the auditions, and I myself, with the help of a jury of musicians, chose all of the musicians. I think that' s really the first step: to be able to choose the musicians you want to have; and then, of course, to be able to educate them, to form them,” says Boulez. “In the ensemble, there is, as you can imagine, quite a turnover. There will always be musicians who want to go forward with their own careers.”

Boulez conducts the group regularly in France as well as on extended tours abroad. "I was never the music director. I was only the president of the ensemble, because I wanted to have a different music director,” says Boulez. "Of course, I am the one who founded the ensemble, and certainly I have a kind of special position with this ensemble. But I try, as much as possible, to avoid having my shadow constantly hanging over it.”

Too brainy?

Boulez has often been criticized for what many term his “overly intellectual” approach to music, but he defends this. “I claim the right for music to have many levels of perception,”he explains. “I always remember a sentence of Proust where he says the works you assimilate the quickest are the ones that live for the least time in your memory. You absorb them very quickly and then they are no longer important.” Then he adds
“By contrast, works where you have some difficulties to perceive, the ones that give you some problems that take time to solve, these -- not the others, that did not present you with any challenge in the first place -- are the works that remain for a long time in your memory."

For Boulez, a work must present a challenge. "If a work is too predictable then I don’t care very much for it, I can deduce beforehand what it is all about, what will happen. On the contrary, works that are too chaotic where you can’t deduce anything, are also unperceivable and you must avoid these two extremes.”

“For me,” he continues, “the balance is right when you have both the constructional and the emotional aspect. A work without one of these aspects is weak.”

A renaissance man

Boulez’s activities haven’t stopped at conducting and composing. He was, for several years, a professor at the Collège de France in Paris and is a highly valued lecturer. He taught musical analysis, composition and conducting. He is also the author of many books and essays, works that have become an important part of music history and analysis.

Now in his late seventies, Pierre Boulez’ sprightly appearance belies his years. He continues an active career conducting and recording with the great orchestras of Europe and the United States. He is alert and concerned by everything that is happening around him. He’s booked out for the years ahead and seems content that it be that way.

“I do what I think I have to do, and I think I have been faithful to the ideals of my youth," he says. "I tried always to keep the same the direction that I chose when I was young” he says.

“I write music because I find it necessary for myself. If it meets an audience immediately then I am happy, if it has to wait then it has to wait,” he says.

Breandáin O'Shea