First national exhibition for Pierre Boulez – and no-one knows

First national exhibition for Pierre Boulez – and no-one knows

News

norman lebrecht

August 16, 2022

France Musique has just discovered that the Bibliothèque nationale de France is staging an exhibition of a collection of artefacts donated by the family of Pierre Boulez. The collection contains personal objects, scores and manuscripts. One part is titled ‘I hate memories’.

The exhibition opened on June 28.

Who knew?

Boulez, who died in 2016, has ceased to make news.

The show runs to November 6.

Comments

  • Mia says:

    He’s remembered more for his conducting. Serialism never caught on beyond academia. It’s as dead as Zed to paraphrase Bruce Willis.

  • Tony Sanderson says:

    He was certainly unique. His recently released DG megabox of CDs and DVDs is a collection like no other.

  • Gerry Feinsteen says:

    His own music will be lucky if a single measure survives in textbooks, but his music-making deserves major recognition—like he himself, this exhibition is ahead of its time

    • Norman says:

      That’s a bit harsh. Le Marteau sans Maître has stood the test of time, and is a genuinely wonderful piece of music.

  • Ya what says:

    Because no one cares about him and he’s vanished from history already.

    Presume the same lies for you, Norman, when the time comes.

    • Freewheeler says:

      No way! Norman will be remembered for ages for his fabulous, insightful and amusing books! His is of far more interest and relevance than that repulsive anti-musician bull-ez.

  • John Dalkas says:

    Maybe France Musique “just discovered” it not because it was asleep at the wheel, as you imply, but because the BnF did a poor job advertising the exhibition.

  • ER says:

    Thank you for this. An exhibition in Paris years ago, a sort of carte blanche for the musician, brought together material of this kind. The aural offerings were a revelation, both the music, and the poetry of Mallarmé, recited well…

  • Bud H says:

    Some mean comments here. The fault lies with Norman’s underreported, blithe comment, in my opinion. Boulez’s music was not destined to rise to the popularity level of John Adams, say, or John Williams, but I see no reason to dismiss it out of hand. Yes, I listen to his music now & then and look for it in rare live performances.

    • Barry Guerrero says:

      Thank you for taking the obvious intelligent and ‘high’ road. Boulez’s serialism may be out-of-date and not much appreciated, but I’d rather listen to it than Glass, Adams, or endless “Star Wars” tracks from John Williams any day.

    • Harry Collier says:

      Who are John Adams and John Williams? And did they really compose music that will last for the next 200 years or so?

    • Buxtehude says:

      Well said, Bud H. We can’t predict what future audiences will prefer, (see Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, et al). If those audiences had a comment section I sense there would be similar comments.

  • Ned Keane says:

    Doubters should listen to Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna, or Pli selon pli. And just because you don’t like modernism or serialism doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant.

  • Norman says:

    An important figure, musically and historically. Wonderful that France honours its creative artists. Where are the memorials and exhibitions devoted to Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle in “Das Land ohne Musik”?

  • MR says:

    Hearing Pierre Boulez’s recording of Three Nocturnes and Premiere Rhapsodie For Orchestra With Solo Clarinet by Claude Debussy with the New Philharmonia Orchestra while a teenager was a major musical event in my life. It was as if I had never truly heard Debussy before. The wildly vivid colors and absolute clarity of texture and organization with mesmeric yet not overdone expression showed how potentially powerful classical music could be on all levels.
    http://azuremilesrecords.com/Gratitude_for_Pierre_Boulez.html

  • David says:

    The opening out of classical? music to include the accessible genres and unknowns, means work which requires hard concentration on the part of the listener, like Boulez’s, has fallen from the public’s and the promoter’s gaze.

  • Tony Sanderson says:

    I was interested in two performances of Schoenberg that I heard recently. One was Yuja Wang’s performance of his suite for solo piano which I heard at the Royal Festival Hall and can be heard on medici.tv (her Verbier festival performance). The other was Hilary Hahn’s recording of his Violin Concerto, which she treats as a romantic violin concerto. Both performers imbued the pieces with real freshness and caused the music to come alive.

    One of the comments complimented Boulez”s ability with Debussy. That seemed one of his great strengths, to bring out the colours and structure of these great scores. Daniel Barenboim has championed Boulez’s music. Maybe his time will come again.

  • Garry Humphreys says:

    Whatever you think of his music, Boulez was a brilliant musician and his ability (as a conductor) to present music with such clarity and conviction was really quite remarkable. And the regard in which he was held by never-easy-to-please orchestral musicians speaks volumes. I find him a fascinating character, not to be dismissed as peremptorily as some commentators here are doing. This is worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-hGWD5TKM8 (I love Vivien Dixon’s Alfred Flaszynski story!)

  • soavemusica says:

    No one knows, because no one cares about his note salad Eton mess. Why? Because music is available.

  • Tarak B says:

    A great musician I was fortunate enough to hear live on numerous occasions (almost 30, I think).
    I, for one, miss him enormously.

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