Which newspaper did Pierre Boulez read?

Which newspaper did Pierre Boulez read?

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norman lebrecht

May 02, 2017

The Konzerthaus in Vienna is putting on an exhibition of Marion Kalter’s photographs of Boulez to accompany a major retrospective of his music this month.

photo (c) Marion Kalter/Lebrecht Music&Arts

He’s having a crafty read in rehearsal. It looks like a tabloid newspaper and he’s well into the sports section.

Comments

  • Marion Kalter says:

    I know the backstage story from one of the musicians…. they all were waiting for a musician that hadn’t showed up for the rehearsql that morning… so P. B. Started reading the newspaper…

  • Ungeheuer says:

    Never ever understood the adoration for or fascination with Pierre Boulez. What gives? Is he some kind of deity or something?

    • jonathan dunsby says:

      ==Is he some kind of deity or something?

      Pretty much, yes.

      Probably it wasn’t his paper. Just one lying around

    • clarrieu says:

      No doubt John Borstlap is gonna provide you very shortly with an answer that willl leave you satisfied for centuries…

    • 18mebrumaire says:

      He was old Europe — would take too long to explain.

    • 18mebrumaire says:

      He was Old Europe (it would take too long to explain).

    • Lynn says:

      Ungeheuer,

      In my experience, dissenting views of Boulez’s greatness are not taken lightly on most classical blogs.

      Here is one example.

      “The hate directed at Pierre Boulez is a measure of his genius. Mediocrity can’t cope with true originality”

      http://classical-iconoclast.blogspot.com/2016/01/hommage-pierre-boulez-philharmonie-de.html

      I can’t but see the HUMOUR in the phenomenon of mid-20th-century Modernism retaining its grip on music-lovers at this point in time, when one would think that by now we could put Boulez’s arid aestheticism in its glass case and recognize it as the decadent cultural phase it is.

      Oh well. Classical music has been decadent, and desperate, for my entire lifetime of 63 years, and I don’t expect to live to see that change.

      • Sue says:

        I always thought his compositional ‘greatness’ was a function of arid post-modernism; that Marxist movement where hierarchy in music was destroyed and all contestants were and are considered equal. That’s why Duchamp’s “Urinal” and Emin’s “Unmade Bed” are up there right beside the Mona Lisa and The Night Watch. Boulez himself belled the cat when he demanded that the opera houses be burned down. Well, that’s one way to attain ‘equality’!! Obviously he had and has his luvvies and acolytes.

        As a conductor he was absolutely wonderful!!

  • John Borstlap says:

    According to Sally here, who has two aunts and a vague acquaintance in Baden-Baden, it is the Stürmische Beobachter.

  • Simon Evnine says:

    In an interview with PB, the Gramophone wrote

    “He is a voracious reader of new fiction and poetry. ‘That way I keep my imagination fresh. Although I am supposed to write like a mathematician – and I did study the subject for a year – I have tried recent books on mathematics and find them incomprehensible! “

  • Walt says:

    This one is easy, Le Figaro.

  • kalter says:

    got the answer my friends while enlarging the photograph: he was reading LIBERATION, ican send out the photo

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