Boulez is honoured as Cleveland’s longest serving maestro
mainAlthough he’s too frail to attend or to conduct, Pierre Boulez will be honoured this Thursday for conducting the Cleveland Orchestra for over half a century. Details here.
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Thanks for posting. Anybody know if Boulez is composing at the moment ? Hopefully his infirmities aren’t getting in the way too much .
I loved him as a conductor, but as a composer . . . well, anything that gets in his way is OK by me.
Bravo! Congratulations Pierre Boulez — some exemplary leader… let’s hear vignettes
from those who have known him through the years– such inspiration to all lovers of the arts.
Lorin Maazel made his debut conducting the Cleveland Orchestra in 1943 !!
You might add that Maazel was 13 years old on that occasion. But by then he was a seasoned professional, having conducted the NBC Symphony at the age of 7.
When Szell brought Boulez to Cleveland in 1965, they seemed like the odd couple of classical music, but having heard the Cleveland Orchestra under Boulez twice in the two years after Szell died, I found their approach to the late19th-early 20-century symphonic literature was remarkably similar, especially in Debussy and Stravinsky. If you can find it, you should listen to the interview with Boulez about his relationship with Szell and their Asian tour together in 1970 just before Szell died. It’s included on the Szell Centenary CD set released by the Cleveland Orchestra in 1996. Maybe Norman could upload that here.
I agree about that Boulez interview included with the Szell Centenary CD set! I was thinking of the same when I saw the title of this post.
It is fascinating to hear Boulez talk about his experience with Szell and the orchestra. He talks at length about the orchestra’s tour of Japan just months before Szell’s death.