Editing Pierre Boulez

{{Short description|French composer and conductor (1925–2016)}}
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[[File:Pierre Boulez (1968).jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|Boulez in 1968]]
'''Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez''' ({{IPA|fr|pjɛʁ lwi ʒozεf bulɛz|lang}}; 26 March 1925{{snd}}5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war [[contemporary classical music]].

Born in [[Montbrison, Loire|Montbrison]], in the Loire department of France, the son of an engineer, Boulez studied at the [[Conservatoire de Paris]] with [[Olivier Messiaen]], and privately with [[Andrée Vaurabourg]] and [[René Leibowitz]]. He began his professional career in the late 1940s as music director of the Renaud-Barrault theatre company in Paris. He was a leading figure in [[avant-garde music]], playing an important role in the development of [[integral serialism]] in the 1950s, [[Aleatoric music|controlled chance music]] in the 1960s and the electronic transformation of instrumental music in real time from the 1970s onwards. His tendency to revise earlier compositions meant that his body of work was relatively small, but it included pieces considered landmarks of twentieth-century music, such as ''[[Le Marteau sans maître]]'', ''[[Pli selon pli]]'' and ''[[Répons]]''. His uncompromising commitment to modernism and the trenchant, [[polemic]]al tone in which he expressed his views on music led some to criticise him as a dogmatist.

Boulez was also one of the most prominent conductors of his generation. In a career lasting more than sixty years, he was music director of the [[New York Philharmonic]], chief conductor of the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] and principal guest conductor of the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]] and the [[Cleveland Orchestra]]. He made frequent appearances with many other orchestras, including the [[Vienna Philharmonic]] and the [[Berlin Philharmonic]]. He was known for his performances of the music of the first half of the twentieth century—including [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]] and [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]], [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] and [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]], and the [[Second Viennese School]]—as well as that of his contemporaries, such as [[György Ligeti|Ligeti]], [[Luciano Berio|Berio]] and [[Elliott Carter|Carter]]. His work in the opera house included the [[Jahrhundertring|production]] of [[Wagner]]'s [[Der Ring des Nibelungen|''Ring'' cycle]] for the centenary of the [[Bayreuth Festival]], and the world premiere of the three-act version of [[Alban Berg|Berg]]'s opera ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]''. His recorded legacy is extensive. 

He also founded several musical institutions. In Paris he set up the [[Domaine musical]] in the 1950s to promote new music; in the 1970s he established the [[IRCAM|Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique]] (IRCAM), to foster research and innovation in music, and the [[Ensemble intercontemporain]], a chamber orchestra specialising in contemporary music. Later he co-founded the [[Cité de la musique]], a concert hall, museum and library dedicated to music in the [[Parc de la Villette]] in Paris and, in Switzerland, the [[Lucerne Festival Academy]], an international orchestra of young musicians, with which he gave first performances of many new works.

==Biography==

===1925–1943: Childhood and school days===
Pierre Boulez was born on 26 March 1925, in [[Montbrison, Loire|Montbrison]], a small town
in the [[Loire (department)|Loire department]] of east-central France, to Léon and Marcelle (''[[née]]'' Calabre) Boulez.<ref>Jameux, 3</ref> He was the third of four children: an older sister, Jeanne (1922–2018)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.francemusique.fr/actualite-musicale/mort-de-jeanne-boulez-chevalier-soeur-de-pierre-boulez-64349 |title=Mort de Jeanne Boulez-Chevalier, soeur de Pierre Boulez |last1=Decalf |first1=Guillaume |date=9 August 2018 |website=France Musique |access-date=10 August 2018 |archive-date=10 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810112347/https://www.francemusique.fr/actualite-musicale/mort-de-jeanne-boulez-chevalier-soeur-de-pierre-boulez-64349 |url-status=live }}</ref> and younger brother, Roger ({{abbrv|b.|born in}} 1936) were preceded by another child called Pierre ({{abbrv|b.|born in}} 1920), who died in infancy. Léon (1891–1969), an engineer and technical director of a steel factory, is described by biographers as an authoritarian figure with a strong sense of fairness, and Marcelle (1897–1985) as an outgoing, good-humoured woman, who deferred to her husband's strict [[Roman Catholic (term)|Catholic]] beliefs, while not necessarily sharing them. The family prospered, moving in 1929 from the apartment above a pharmacy, where Boulez was born, to a comfortable detached house, where he spent most of his childhood.<ref>Peyser (1976), 21–22; Heyworth (1986), 3; [[Dominique Jameux|Jameux, 3]].</ref>

From the age of seven Boulez went to school at the Institut Victor de Laprade, a Catholic [[seminary]] where the thirteen-hour school day was filled with study and prayer. By the age of eighteen he had repudiated Catholicism;<ref>Peyser (1976), 23–25.</ref> later in life he described himself as an agnostic.<ref>Boulez (2017), 21.</ref>

As a child, Boulez took piano lessons, played [[chamber music]] with local amateurs and sang in the school choir.<ref>Boulez (1976), 10–11.</ref> After completing the first part of his [[Baccalauréat|baccalaureate]] a year early, he spent the academic year of 1940–41 at the Pensionnat St. Louis, a boarding school in nearby [[Saint-Étienne]]. The following year he took classes in advanced mathematics at the Cours Sogno in [[Lyon]] (a school established by the [[Congregation of the Mission|Lazaristes]])<ref>Merlin, 23.</ref> with a view to gaining admission to the [[École Polytechnique]] in Paris. His father hoped this would lead to a career in engineering.<ref>Peyser (1976), 23–24.</ref> Wartime conditions in Lyon were already harsh; they became harsher still when the [[Vichy France|Vichy government]] fell, the Germans took over and the city became a centre of the [[French Resistance|resistance]].<ref name=Coleman>{{cite news |last=Coleman |first=Terry |date=13 January 1989 |title=Pierre de Résistance |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/from-the-archive-blog/2015/mar/20/pierre-boulez-reviews-archive |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=3 January 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104002147/https://www.theguardian.com/music/from-the-archive-blog/2015/mar/20/pierre-boulez-reviews-archive |archive-date=4 January 2017 }}</ref>

In Lyon, Boulez first heard an orchestra, saw his first operas (Mussorgsky's ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' and Wagner's ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg]]'')<ref>Boulez (2003), 17.</ref> and met the soprano [[Ninon Vallin]], who asked him to play for her. Impressed by his ability, she persuaded his father to allow him to apply to the [[Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon|Conservatoire de Lyon]]. He was rejected but was determined to pursue a career in music. The following year, with his sister's support in the face of opposition from his father, he studied piano and harmony privately with Lionel de Pachmann (son of the pianist [[Vladimir de Pachmann]]).<ref>Peyser (1976), 24–25; Jameux, 6–7; Heyworth (1986), 4.</ref> "Our parents were strong, but finally we were stronger than they", Boulez later said.<ref>Peyser (1976), 24.</ref> In the event, when he moved to Paris in the autumn of 1943, hoping to enroll at the [[Conservatoire de Paris]], his father accompanied him, helped him to find a room (in the [[7th arrondissement of Paris|7th arrondissement]]) and subsidised him until he could earn a living.<ref>Heyworth (1986), 4; Hill and Simeone, 139; O'Hagan, 9.</ref>

===1943–1946: Musical education===
In October 1943, Boulez auditioned unsuccessfully for the advanced piano class at the Conservatoire, but he was admitted in January 1944 to the preparatory harmony class of [[Georges Dandelot]]. He made rapid progress, and by May 1944 Dandelot was describing him as "the best of the class".<ref>O'Hagan, 13.</ref>
[[File:4 rue Beautrellis, Paris, France.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|left|upright|4, [[rue Beautreillis]] in Paris, where Boulez lived from 1945 to 1958]]
Around the same time he was introduced to [[Andrée Vaurabourg]], wife of the composer [[Arthur Honegger]]. Between April 1944 and May 1946 he studied counterpoint privately with her.<ref>Heyworth (1986), 5; Archimbaud, 24.</ref> In June 1944 he approached [[Olivier Messiaen]] and asked to study harmony with him. Messiaen invited him to attend the private seminars he gave to selected students; in January 1945, Boulez joined Messiaen's advanced harmony class at the Conservatoire.<ref>Heyworth (1986), 9; Merlin, 28.</ref>

Boulez moved to two small attic rooms on [[Rue Beautreillis]] in the [[Le Marais|Marais]] district of Paris, where he lived for the next thirteen years.<ref>Barbedette, 212; Peyser, 30.</ref> In February 1945 he attended a private performance of [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]]'s [[Wind Quintet (Schoenberg)|Wind Quintet]], conducted by [[René Leibowitz]], the composer and follower of Schoenberg. The strict use of [[twelve-tone technique]] in the Quintet was a revelation to Boulez, who organised a group of fellow students to take private lessons with Leibowitz. It was here that he also discovered the music of [[Anton Webern|Webern]].<ref>Peyser (1976), 32–33; Jameux, 15–16.</ref> He eventually found Leibowitz's approach too doctrinaire and broke angrily with him in 1946 when Leibowitz tried to criticise one of his early works.<ref>Samuel (2002), 24; Peyser (1976), 39; Barbedette, 212–213.</ref>

In June 1945, Boulez was one of four Conservatoire students awarded [[First Prize (music diploma)|''premier prix'']]. He was described in the examiner's report as "the most gifted—a composer".<ref>O'Hagan, 14.</ref> Although registered at the Conservatoire for the academic year 1945–46, he soon boycotted [[Simone Plé-Caussade]]'s counterpoint and fugue class, infuriated by what he described as her "lack of imagination", and organised a petition that Messiaen be given a full professorship in composition.<ref>O'Hagan, 37.</ref><ref>Peyser (1976), 31–32.</ref>{{refn|Messiaen was not appointed professor of composition until 1949.<ref>Peyser (1976), 32.</ref>|group=n}} Over the winter of 1945–46 Boulez immersed himself in [[Balinese music|Balinese]] and [[Japanese music]] and [[African drumming]] at the [[Musée Guimet]] and the [[Musée de l'Homme]] in Paris:<ref>Barbedette, 212; Boulez (2017), 96.</ref> "I almost chose the career of an [[ethnomusicologist]] because I was so fascinated by that music. It gives a different feeling of time."<ref name=Bully>{{cite news |last=Culshaw |first=Peter |date=10 December 2008 |title=Pierre Boulez: 'I was a bully, I'm not ashamed' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3702982/Pierre-Boulez-I-was-a-bully-Im-not-ashamed.html |newspaper=The Telegraph |access-date=9 April 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422212009/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3702982/Pierre-Boulez-I-was-a-bully-Im-not-ashamed.html |archive-date=22 April 2016 }}</ref>

===1946–1953: Early career in Paris===
[[File:Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud.jpg|alt=Barrault and Renaud standing in front of a poster for their company|thumb|[[Jean-Louis Barrault]] and [[Madeleine Renaud]] in 1952, by [[Carl Van Vechten]]]]
On 12 February 1946, the pianist [[Yvette Grimaud]] gave the first public performances of Boulez's music (''Douze Notations'' and ''Trois Psalmodies'') at the Concerts du Triptyque.<ref>Merlin, 36.</ref> Boulez earned money by giving maths lessons to his landlord's son.<ref name=TelegraphObituary>{{cite news|title=Pierre Boulez—obituary|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12084616/Pierre-Boulez-obituary.html|access-date=13 April 2016|work=The Telegraph|date=6 January 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420093549/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12084616/Pierre-Boulez-obituary.html|archive-date=20 April 2016}}</ref> He also played the [[ondes Martenot]] (an early electronic instrument), improvising accompaniments to radio dramas and occasionally deputising in the pit orchestra of the [[Folies Bergère]].<ref>Boulez (2017), 165; Archimbaud, 39.</ref> In October 1946, the actor and director [[Jean-Louis Barrault]] engaged him to play the ondes for a production of ''[[Hamlet]]'' for the new company he and his wife, [[Madeleine Renaud]], had formed at the [[Théâtre Marigny]].<ref>Barrault, 161.</ref> Boulez was soon appointed music director of the Compagnie Renaud-Barrault, a post he held for nine years. He arranged and conducted incidental music, mostly by composers whose music he disliked (such as [[Darius Milhaud|Milhaud]] and [[Tchaikovsky]]), but it gave him the chance to work with professional musicians, while leaving time to compose during the day.<ref>Barbedette, 213–215; Peyser (1976), 52–53; Merlin, 37.</ref>

His involvement with the company also broadened his horizons: in 1947 they toured to Belgium and Switzerland ("absolutely ''[[Cockaigne|pays de cocagne]]'', my first discovery of the big world");<ref name=Coleman /> in 1948 they took ''Hamlet'' to the second [[Edinburgh International Festival]];<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.eif.co.uk/news/2016/pierre-boulez-1925-2016 |title=Pierre Boulez: 1925–2016 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=7 January 2016 |website=Edinburgh International Festival |access-date=1 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160729021122/http://www.eif.co.uk/news/2016/pierre-boulez-1925-2016#.WJJNwRicYUQ |archive-date=29 July 2016 }}</ref> in 1951 they gave a season of plays in London, at the invitation of [[Laurence Olivier]];<ref>Campbell and O'Hagan, 303–305.</ref> and between 1950 and 1957 there were three tours to South America and two to North America.<ref>Campbell and O'Hagan, 4–5.</ref> Much of the music he wrote for the company was lost after the occupation by students of the [[Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe|Théâtre de l'Odéon]] during the [[May 68|civil unrest in May 1968]].<ref>Boulez (2017), 68.</ref>

The period between 1947 and 1950 was one of intense compositional activity for Boulez. New works included the [[Piano sonatas (Boulez)|first two piano sonatas]] and initial versions of two cantatas on poems by [[René Char]], ''[[Le Visage nuptial]]''{{refn|The Nuptial Countenance.|group=n|name=visage}} and ''[[Le Soleil des eaux]]''.<ref>Samuel (2002), 421–22.</ref>{{refn|The Sun of the Waters,|group=n|name=soleil}} In October 1951, a substantial work for eighteen solo instruments, ''[[Polyphonie X]]'', caused a scandal at its premiere at the [[Donaueschingen Festival]], some audience members whistling and hissing during the performance.<ref>Peyser (1976), 66.</ref>

Around this time, Boulez met two composers who were to be important influences: [[John Cage]] and [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]]. His friendship with Cage began in 1949 when Cage was visiting Paris. Cage introduced Boulez to two publishers ([[Heugel (music publisher)|Heugel]] and Amphion) who agreed to take his recent pieces; Boulez helped to arrange a private performance of Cage's ''[[Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano]]''.<ref>Peyser (1976), 60–61; Boulez and Cage, 41–48.</ref> When Cage returned to New York they began an intense, six-year correspondence about the future of music. Their friendship later cooled as Boulez could not accept Cage's increasing commitment to compositional procedures [[Aleatoric music|based on chance]]; he later broke off contact with him.<ref>Peyser (1976) 82–85; Di Pietro, 27–34; Boulez and Cage, 29–33.</ref> In 1952 Stockhausen arrived in Paris to study with Messiaen.<ref name="Barbedette, 214">Barbedette, 214.</ref> Although Boulez knew no German and Stockhausen no French, the rapport between them was instant: "A friend translated [and] we gesticulated wildly&nbsp;... We talked about music all the time—in a way I've never talked about it with anyone else."<ref>Peyser (1976), 76.</ref>

In July 1952, Boulez attended the [[Darmstädter Ferienkurse|International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt]] for the first time. As well as Stockhausen, Boulez was in contact there with other composers who would become significant figures in contemporary music, including [[Luciano Berio]] and [[Luigi Nono]]. Boulez quickly became one of the leaders of the post-war modernist movement in the arts. As the music critic [[Alex Ross (music critic)|Alex Ross]] observed: "at all times he seemed absolutely sure of what he was doing. Amid the confusion of postwar life, with so many truths discredited, his certitude was reassuring."<ref>Ross, 360.</ref>

===1954–1959: Le Domaine musical===
[[File:Theatre Marigny - Salle Popesco.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|The Salle Popesco in Paris, formerly the Petit Marigny]]

In 1954, with the financial backing of Barrault and Renaud, Boulez started a series of concerts at the Petit Marigny theatre, which became known as the [[Domaine musical]]. The concerts focused initially on three areas: pre-war classics still unfamiliar in Paris (such as [[Bela Bartók|Bartók]] and Webern), works by the new generation (Stockhausen, Nono) and neglected masters from the past ([[Machaut]], [[Carlo Gesualdo|Gesualdo]])—although the last category fell away in subsequent seasons, in part because of the difficulty of finding musicians with experience of playing early music.<ref>Jameux 61–62, 71–72; Aguila, 156.</ref> Boulez proved an energetic and accomplished administrator and the concerts were an immediate success.<ref>Heyworth (1986), 21; Jameux, 62–64; Campbell and O'Hagan, 9; Aguila, 55.</ref> They attracted musicians, painters and writers, as well as fashionable society, but they were so expensive that Boulez had to turn to wealthy patrons for support.<ref>Jameux, 65–67; Peyser (1976), 111–112.</ref>

Key events in the Domaine's history included a Webern festival (1955), the European premiere of Stravinsky's ''[[Agon (ballet)|Agon]]'' (1957) and first performances of Messiaen's ''[[Oiseaux exotiques]]'' (1955) and ''[[Sept haïkaï]]'' (1963). Boulez remained director until 1967, when Gilbert Amy succeeded him.<ref>Steinegger, 64–66; Hill and Simeone, 211 and 253.</ref>

On 18 June 1955, [[Hans Rosbaud]] conducted the first performance of Boulez's best-known work, ''[[Le Marteau sans maître]]'',{{refn|The Hammer without a Master.|group=n|name=marteau}} at the ISCM Festival in Baden-Baden. A nine-movement cycle for alto voice and instrumental ensemble based on poems by René Char,<ref name=Nichols6Jan>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/06/pierre-boulez|title=Pierre Boulez obituary|work=The Guardian|first=Roger|last=Nichols|date=6 January 2016|access-date=6 January 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106151953/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/06/pierre-boulez|archive-date=6 January 2016}}</ref> it was an immediate, international success.<ref>Jameux, 79–80.</ref> [[William Glock]] wrote: "even at a first hearing, though difficult to take in, it was so utterly new in sound, texture and feeling that it seemed to possess a mythical quality like that of Schoenberg's ''[[Pierrot lunaire]]''".<ref>Glock, 132.</ref> When Boulez conducted the work in Los Angeles in early 1957, Stravinsky attended the performance; he later described the piece as "one of the few significant works of the post-war period of exploration".<ref name=Nichols6Jan/> Boulez dined several times with the Stravinskys and (according to [[Robert Craft]]) "soon captivated the older composer with new musical ideas, and an extraordinary intelligence, quickness and humour".<ref>Walsh, 359; Heyworth (1986), 15 and 22.</ref> Relations between the two composers soured the following year over the first Paris performance of Stravinsky's ''[[Threni (Stravinsky)|Threni]]'' for the Domaine musical. Poorly planned by Boulez and nervously conducted by Stravinsky, the performance broke down more than once.<ref>Walsh, 385–387; Glock, 74.</ref>

In January 1958, the ''Improvisations sur Mallarmé (I et II)'' were premiered, forming the kernel of a piece which grew over the next four years into a large-scale, five-movement "portrait of [[Stéphane Mallarmé|Mallarmé]]", ''[[Pli selon pli]]''.{{refn|Fold upon Fold.|group=n|name=pli}} It received its premiere in Donaueschingen in October 1962.<ref>Barbedette, 216–218.</ref>

Around this time, Boulez's relations with Stockhausen deteriorated as (according to the biographer [[Joan Peyser]]) he saw the younger man supplanting him as the leader of the avant-garde.<ref>Peyser (1976), 131–137.</ref>

===1959–1971: International conducting career===
In 1959, Boulez left Paris for [[Baden-Baden]], where he had an arrangement with the [[Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra]] to work as composer-in-residence and to conduct some smaller concerts.<ref>Kenyon, 359.</ref> He also had access to an electronic studio where he could work on a new piece (''Poésie pour pouvoir'').<ref>Barbedette, 46–48.</ref>{{refn|Poetry for Power.|group=n|name=poesie}} He moved into, and eventually bought, a large hillside villa, which was his main home for the rest of his life.<ref>Peyser (1976), 145; Jameux, 114; Boulez and Cage, 224.</ref>

During this period, he turned increasingly to conducting. His first engagement as an orchestral conductor had been in 1956, when he conducted the [[Venezuela Symphony Orchestra]] while on tour with Barrault.<ref>Vermeil, 142</ref> His breakthrough came in 1959 when he replaced the ailing Hans Rosbaud at short notice in demanding programmes of twentieth-century music at the [[Aix-en-Provence Festival|Aix-en-Provence]] and Donaueschingen Festivals.<ref>Vermeil, 180–82; Boulez (2003), 4–5.</ref> This led to debuts with the [[Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra|Amsterdam Concertgebouw]], [[Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra|Bavarian Radio Symphony]] and [[Berlin Philharmonic]] orchestras.<ref>Vermeil, 182–86</ref> 
[[File:George Szell , dirigent, en Clevelandorkest op Schiphol, Bestanddeelnr 908-6780.jpg|alt=George Szell, seated, in a pin-stripe suit, gesturing with his left hand|thumb|left|[[George Szell]] in 1957]]
In 1963 Boulez conducted his first opera, Berg's ''[[Wozzeck]]'' at the [[Opéra National de Paris]], directed by Barrault. The conditions were exceptional, with thirty orchestral rehearsals instead of the usual three or four; the critical response was favourable and after the first performance the musicians rose to applaud him.<ref>Steinegger, 260–68; Peyser (1976), 170.</ref> He conducted ''Wozzeck'' again in April 1966 at the [[Oper Frankfurt]] in a new production by [[Wieland Wagner]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Weber|first=Hildegard|date=September 1966|title=The First Boulez-Wagner Production|url=http://opera.archive.netcopy.co.uk/article/september-1966/53/the-first-boulez-wagner-production|newspaper=Opera Magazine|access-date=25 April 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425224539/http://opera.archive.netcopy.co.uk/article/september-1966/53/the-first-boulez-wagner-production|archive-date=25 April 2016}}</ref>

Wieland Wagner had already invited Boulez to conduct Wagner's ''[[Parsifal]]'' at the [[Bayreuth Festival]] later in the season, and Boulez returned to conduct revivals in 1967, 1968 and 1970.<ref>Vermeil, 192–98.</ref> He also conducted performances of Wagner's ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' with the Bayreuth company at the Osaka Festival in Japan in 1967, but the lack of adequate rehearsal made it an experience he later said he would rather forget.<ref name=Blight/> His conducting of the new production (by [[Václav Kašlík]]) of Debussy's ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] in 1969 was praised for its combination of "delicacy and sumptuousness".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Higgins|first1=John|title=Boulez in the Wardrobe|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/13th-december-1969/32/arts-boulez-in-the-wardrobe|access-date=27 March 2016|work=The Spectator|date=12 December 1969|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20160328115853/http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/13th-december-1969/32/arts-boulez-in-the-wardrobe|archive-date=28 March 2016}}</ref>

In 1965, the [[Edinburgh International Festival]] staged the first large-scale retrospective of Boulez as composer and conductor.<ref>Campbell and O'Hagan, 327 and 332.</ref> In 1966, he proposed a reorganisation of French musical life to the minister of culture, [[André Malraux]], but Malraux instead appointed the conservative [[Marcel Landowski]] as head of music at the Ministry of Culture. Boulez expressed his fury in an article in the ''Nouvel Observateur'', announcing that he was "going on strike with regard to any aspect of official music in France".<ref>Vermeil, 144–145 (note 27).</ref>

In March 1965, Boulez had made his orchestral debut in the United States with the [[Cleveland Orchestra]].<ref>Rosenberg, 378; Boulez (2017), 58 and 194.</ref> In February 1969 he became its principal guest conductor and, on the death of [[George Szell]] in July 1970, assumed the role of music advisor for two years.<ref>Rosenberg, 402.</ref> In the 1968–69 season, he also made guest appearances in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.<ref>Vermeil, 188–95</ref>

Apart from ''Pli selon pli'', Boulez's only substantial new work to emerge in the first half of the 1960s was the final version of Book 2 of his ''Structures'' for two pianos.<ref>Samuel (2002), 425.</ref> Midway through the decade, he produced several new works, including ''[[Éclat]]'' (1965),{{refn|The French word has many meanings, including "splinter" and "burst".|group=n|name=eclat}} a short and brilliant piece for small ensemble,<ref>Griffiths (1978), 52.</ref> which by 1970 had grown into a substantial half-hour work, ''[[Éclat/Multiples]]''.<ref>Samuel (2002), 426–27</ref>

===1971–1977: London and New York===
Boulez first conducted the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] in February 1964, at [[Worthing]], accompanying [[Vladimir Ashkenazy]] in a [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]] piano concerto. Boulez recalled: "It was terrible, I felt like a waiter who keeps dropping the plates."<ref>Kenyon, 317.</ref> His appearances with the orchestra over the next five years included his debuts at the [[The Proms|Proms]] and at [[Carnegie Hall]] (1965)<ref>Vermeil, 189; Glock, 106.</ref> and tours to Moscow and Leningrad, Berlin and Prague (1967).<ref>Glock, 107 and 109; Vermeil, 191.</ref> In January 1969 William Glock, controller of music at the BBC, announced his appointment as chief conductor.<ref name="Glock, 139">Glock, 139.</ref> Two months later, Boulez conducted the [[New York Philharmonic]] for the first time.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Schonberg|first1=Harold C.|title=Music: A First for Boulez|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/03/14/90066065.pdf|access-date=8 February 2016|work=The New York Times|date=14 March 1969}}</ref> His performances so impressed both orchestra and management that he was offered the chief conductorship in succession to [[Leonard Bernstein]]. Glock was dismayed and tried to persuade him that accepting the New York position would detract both from his work in London and his ability to compose but Boulez could not resist the opportunity (as Glock put it) "to reform the music-making of both these world cities" and in June the New York appointment was confirmed.<ref>Glock, 139–40.</ref>
[[File:Roger Woodward and Pierre Boulez rehearsing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra Bartok's first Piano Concerto in 1972.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|left|Boulez rehearsing with the pianist [[Roger Woodward]] for a BBC Symphony Orchestra concert in 1972]]

His tenure in New York lasted between 1971 and 1977 and was not an unqualified success. The dependence on a subscription audience limited his programming. He introduced more key works from the first half of the twentieth century and, with earlier repertoire, sought out less well-known pieces.<ref>Vermeil, 54.</ref> In his first season, he conducted Liszt's ''The Legend of Saint Elizabeth'' and [[Via crucis (Liszt)|''Via Crucis'']].<ref>Vermeil, 202–203.</ref> Performances of new music were comparatively rare in the subscription series. The players admired his musicianship but regarded him as dry and unemotional compared to Bernstein, although it was widely accepted that he improved the standard of playing.<ref name="Heyworth(1986), 36">Heyworth (1986), 36.</ref> He returned on only three occasions to the orchestra in later years.<ref>Vermeil, 228 and 239.</ref>

Boulez's time with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was happier. With the resources of the BBC behind him, he could be bolder in his choice of repertoire.<ref name="Heyworth(1986), 36"/> There were occasional forays into the classical and romantic repertoire, particularly at the Proms (Beethoven's [[Missa solemnis (Beethoven)|Missa solemnis]] in 1972; the [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]] ''[[A German Requiem (Brahms)|German Requiem]]'' in 1973),<ref>Vermeil, 205 and 209.</ref> but for the most part he worked intensively with the orchestra on the music of the twentieth century. He conducted works by the younger generation of British composers—such as [[Harrison Birtwistle]] and [[Peter Maxwell Davies]]—but [[Benjamin Britten|Britten]] and [[Michael Tippett|Tippett]] were absent from his programmes.<ref>Vermeil, 205, 209, 211 and 216.</ref> His relations with the musicians were generally excellent.<ref>Glock, 135; Kenyon, 391–95.</ref> He was chief conductor between 1971 and 1975, continuing as chief guest conductor until 1977. Thereafter he returned to the orchestra frequently until his last appearance in an all-[[Leoš Janáček|Janáček]] programme at a 2008 Prom.<ref>{{cite news |last=Clements |first=Andrew |date=18 August 2008 |title=Prom 40, BBCSO/Boulez |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/aug/18/proms.classicalmusicandopera1 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=29 March 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330085423/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/aug/18/proms.classicalmusicandopera1 |archive-date=30 March 2017 }}</ref>

In both cities, Boulez sought out venues where new music could be presented more informally: in New York he began a series of "Rug Concerts"—when the seats in [[Avery Fisher Hall]] were taken out and the audience sat on the floor—and a contemporary music series called "Prospective Encounters" in [[Greenwich Village]];<ref>Peyser (1976), 245–46; Vermeil, 150.</ref> in London he gave concerts at the [[Roundhouse (venue)|Roundhouse]], a former railway turntable shed which [[Peter Brook]] had also used for radical theatre productions. His aim was "to create a feeling that we are all, audience, players and myself, taking part in an act of exploration".<ref>Glock, 141.</ref>

In 1972, [[Wolfgang Wagner]], who had succeeded his brother Wieland as director of the Bayreuth Festival, invited Boulez to conduct the [[Jahrhundertring|1976 centenary production]] of Wagner's ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen]]''.<ref>Wagner, 165.</ref>{{refn|Known as the ''[[Jahrhundertring]]''.|group=n}} The director was [[Patrice Chéreau]]. Highly controversial in its first year, according to Barry Millington by the end of the run in 1980 "enthusiasm for the production vastly outweighed disapproval".<ref name=Millington>{{cite news|last1=Millington|first1=Barry|title=Patrice Chéreau and the bringing of dramatic conviction to the opera house|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/08/patrice-chereau-by-barry-millington|access-date=6 May 2018|work=The Guardian|date=8 October 2013|archive-date=13 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013051405/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/08/patrice-chereau-by-barry-millington|url-status=live}}</ref> It was televised around the world.<ref name=Kozinn />

A few new works emerged during this period, of which perhaps the most important is ''[[Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna]]'', a large-scale orchestral work, prompted by the death at a relatively young age of Boulez's friend and fellow composer.<ref>Simon (2002), 427.</ref>

===1977–1992: IRCAM===
In 1970 Boulez was asked by President [[Georges Pompidou|Pompidou]] to return to France and set up an institute specialising in musical research and creation at the arts complex—now known as the [[Centre Georges Pompidou]]—which was planned for the Beaubourg district of Paris. The [[IRCAM|Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique]] (IRCAM) opened in 1977.

Boulez's model was the [[Bauhaus]], which had been a meeting place for artists and scientists of all disciplines.<ref>Jameux, 187.</ref> IRCAM's aims included research into acoustics, instrumental design and the use of computers in music.<ref name=Nichols6Jan/> The original building was constructed underground, partly to isolate it acoustically (an above-ground extension was added later).<ref>Jameux, 175.</ref> The institution was criticised for absorbing too much state subsidy, Boulez for wielding too much power.<ref name=Nichols6Jan/> At the same time he founded the [[Ensemble intercontemporain]], a virtuoso ensemble dedicated to contemporary music.<ref>Barbedette, 219–21.</ref>

In 1979, Boulez conducted the world premiere of the three-act version of Berg's ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]'' at the [[Palais Garnier|Paris Opera]] in [[Friedrich Cerha]]'s completion of the work, left unfinished at Berg's death. It was directed by Chéreau.<ref name="Barbedette, 221"/> Otherwise he scaled back his conducting commitments to concentrate on IRCAM. Most of his appearances during this period were with his own Ensemble intercontemporain—including tours to the United States (1986), Australia (1988), the Soviet Union (1990) and Canada (1991)<ref>Vermeil, 228, 231, 234 and 236.</ref>—although he also renewed his links in the 1980s with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.<ref>Vermeil, 226, 230, 233.</ref>

Boulez composed significantly more during this period, producing a series of pieces which used the potential, developed at IRCAM, electronically to transform sound in real time. The first of these was ''[[Répons]]'' (1981–1984), a 40-minute work for soloists, ensemble and electronics. He also radically reworked earlier pieces, including ''Notations I-IV'', a transcription and expansion for large orchestra of tiny piano pieces (1945–1980),<ref name="Barbedette, 221">Barbedette, 221.</ref> and his cantata on poems by Char, ''Le Visage nuptial'' (1946–1989).<ref name=Visage>Samuel (2002), 421–422.</ref>

From 1976 to 1995, he held the Chair in ''Invention, technique et langage en musique'' at the [[Collège de France]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Pierre Boulez|url=http://www.college-de-france.fr/site/pierre-boulez/index.htm#content.htm|publisher=College de France|access-date=7 February 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213045307/http://www.college-de-france.fr/site/pierre-boulez/index.htm#content.htm|archive-date=13 February 2016}}</ref> In 1988 he made a series of six programmes for French television, ''Boulez XXe siècle'', each of which focused on a specific aspect of contemporary music (rhythm, timbre, form etc.)<ref name=FM>{{cite web|url=https://www.francemusique.fr/musique-contemporaine/pierre-boulez-biographie-complete-2768|title=Pierre Boulez: biographie complète|author=Staff|date=8 January 2016|website=France Musique|publisher=Radio France|access-date=26 December 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226182246/https://www.francemusique.fr/musique-contemporaine/pierre-boulez-biographie-complete-2768|archive-date=26 December 2017}}</ref>

===1992–2006: Return to conducting===
In 1992, Boulez gave up the directorship of IRCAM and was succeeded by Laurent Bayle.<ref name="Barbedette, 223">Barbedette, 223.</ref> He was composer in residence at that year's [[Salzburg Festival]].<ref>Samuel 2002, 419–20.</ref> The previous year he began a series of annual residencies with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1995 he was named principal guest conductor in Chicago, a post he held until 2005, when he became conductor emeritus.<ref>{{cite news|last=von Rhein|first=John|date=7 January 2016|title=CSO conductor emeritus Pierre Boulez dies at 90|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-pierre-boulez-dead-20160106-story.html|newspaper=The Chicago Tribune|access-date=2 May 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603093142/http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-pierre-boulez-dead-20160106-story.html|archive-date=3 June 2016}}</ref> His 70th birthday in 1995 was marked by a six-month retrospective tour with the London Symphony Orchestra, taking in Paris, Vienna, New York and Tokyo.<ref>Vermeil, 242–43.</ref> In 2001 he conducted a major Bartók cycle with the Orchestre de Paris.<ref name="Barbedette, 223"/>
[[File:Boulez25oct2004.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|left|Boulez at a conference at the [[Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels|Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels]] in 2004]]
This period also marked a return to the opera house, including two productions with [[Peter Stein (director)|Peter Stein]]: Debussy's ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' (1992, [[Welsh National Opera]]<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rockwell|first1=John|title=Boulez and Stein Stage 'Pelleas' With Modern Nuances in Wales|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/24/arts/boulez-and-stein-stage-pelleas-with-modern-nuances-in-wales.html|access-date=7 February 2016|work=The New York Times|date=24 February 1992|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213030644/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/24/arts/boulez-and-stein-stage-pelleas-with-modern-nuances-in-wales.html|archive-date=13 February 2016}}</ref> and [[Théâtre du Châtelet|Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris]]); and Schoenberg's ''[[Moses und Aron]]'' (1995, [[Dutch National Opera]]<ref>{{cite news|last1=Glass|first1=Herbert|title=Schoenberg Masterpiece by Ear Only|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-11-10-ca-63100-story.html|access-date=7 February 2016|work=Los Angeles Times|date=10 November 1996|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20160207153102/http://articles.latimes.com/1996-11-10/entertainment/ca-63100_1_und-aron|archive-date=7 February 2016}}</ref> and [[Salzburg Festival]]). In 2004 and 2005 he returned to Bayreuth to conduct a controversial new production of ''Parsifal'' directed by [[Christoph Schlingensief]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Ross|first1=Alex|title=Nausea|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/08/09/nausea|access-date=7 February 2016|magazine=The New Yorker|date=9 August 2004|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311175533/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/08/09/nausea|archive-date=11 March 2016}}</ref>

His two most substantial compositions from this period are ''[[...explosante-fixe...]]'' (1993), which had its origins in 1972 as a tribute to Stravinsky and which again used the electronic resources of IRCAM,<ref>Samuel (2002), 429.</ref> and ''[[sur Incises]]'' (1998), for which he was awarded the 2001 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.<ref>{{cite web|title=2001—Pierre Boulez|date=20 July 2001 |url=http://grawemeyer.org/2001-pierre-boulez/|publisher=The Grawemeyer Awards|access-date=7 February 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160219232455/http://grawemeyer.org/2001-pierre-boulez/|archive-date=19 February 2016}}</ref>

Boulez continued to work on institutional organisation. He co-founded the [[Cité de la musique]], which opened in La Villette on the outskirts of Paris in 1995.<ref name=TelegraphObituary/> Consisting of a modular concert hall, museum and mediatheque—with the Conservatoire de Paris on an adjacent site—it became the home to the Ensemble intercontemporain and attracted a diverse audience.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Whitney|first1=Craig|title=Unruly Paris Music Scene Relishes the Eclat Of a Boulez Coup|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/13/arts/unruly-paris-music-scene-relishes-the-eclat-of-a-boulez-coup.html|access-date=10 May 2016|work=The New York Times|date=13 May 1996|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604082417/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/13/arts/unruly-paris-music-scene-relishes-the-eclat-of-a-boulez-coup.html|archive-date=4 June 2016}}</ref> In 2004, he co-founded the [[Lucerne Festival|Lucerne Festival Academy]], an orchestral institute for young musicians, dedicated to music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Service|first1=Tom|author-link=Tom Service|title=A day for Boulez: moving tributes and newly composed homages at the Lucerne festival|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2015/aug/26/pierre-boulez-day-lucerne-festival-rihm-kurtag|access-date=7 February 2016|work=The Guardian|date=26 August 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208085809/http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2015/aug/26/pierre-boulez-day-lucerne-festival-rihm-kurtag|archive-date=8 February 2016}}</ref> For the next ten years he spent the last three weeks of summer working with young composers and conducting concerts with the Academy's orchestra.<ref>Barbedette, 224.</ref>

===2006–2016: Last years===
Boulez's last major work was ''Dérive 2'' (2006), a 45-minute piece for eleven instruments.<ref>O'Hagan, 316.</ref> He left several compositional projects unfinished, including the remaining ''Notations'' for orchestra.<ref name=Nichols6Jan/>
[[File:Boulez2008.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|left|upright=.8|Boulez at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2008 with the [[Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra|SWR Sinfonieorchester]]]]
He remained active as a conductor over the next six years. In 2007 he was re-united with Chéreau for a production of Janáček's ''[[From the House of the Dead]]'' (Theater an der Wien, Amsterdam and Aix).<ref>{{cite news | url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/operalivereviews/story/0,,2094571,00.html | title=From the House of the Dead | work=The Guardian| author=Tim Ashley | date=4 June 2007 | access-date=7 September 2007 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080105101721/http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/operalivereviews/story/0,,2094571,00.html | archive-date=5 January 2008 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> In April that year, as part of the Festtage in Berlin, Boulez and [[Daniel Barenboim]] gave a cycle of the [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]] symphonies with the [[Staatskapelle Berlin]], which they repeated two years later at Carnegie Hall.<ref>{{cite news|last=Oestreich|first=James|author-link=James Oestreich|date=7 May 2009|title=Wagner Masters Offer Mahler Cycle|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/arts/music/08staa.html|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=7 May 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226235338/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/arts/music/08staa.html |archive-date=26 December 2017}}</ref> In late 2007 the Orchestre de Paris and the Ensemble intercontemporain presented a retrospective of Boulez's music<ref>{{cite news |last=Machart|first=Renaud |author-link = Renaud Machart |date=29 November 2011 |title=L'oeil vif et le geste précis de Pierre Boulez|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2007/11/29/musique-l-oeil-vif-et-le-geste-precis-de-pierre-boulez_983955_3246.html|newspaper=[[Le Monde]] |location=Paris|access-date=1 August 2016}}</ref> and in 2008 the [[Louvre]] mounted the exhibition ''Pierre Boulez, Œuvre: fragment''.<ref name=FM />

His appearances became more infrequent after an eye operation in 2010 left him with severely impaired sight. Other health problems included a shoulder injury resulting from a fall.<ref name="WQXR">[http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/310993-pierre-boulez-breaks-his-shoulder-cancels-lucerne/ WQXR Staff, "Pierre Boulez Breaks His Shoulder, Cancels in Lucerne"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051111091533/http://www.wnyc.org/stream/ram.py?file=madaboutmusic%2Fmam010204.ra |date=11 November 2005 }}, 6 August 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2016.</ref> In late 2011, when he was already quite frail,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hewett|first1=Ivan|title=Exquisite Labyrinth: the music of Pierre Boulez, Southbank Centre, review|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalconcertreviews/8805832/Exquisite-Labyrinth-the-music-of-Pierre-Boulez-Southbank-Centre-review.html|access-date=27 March 2016|work=The Telegraph|date=4 October 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410153105/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalconcertreviews/8805832/Exquisite-Labyrinth-the-music-of-Pierre-Boulez-Southbank-Centre-review.html|archive-date=10 April 2016}}</ref> he led the combined Ensemble intercontemporain and Lucerne Festival Academy, with the soprano [[Barbara Hannigan]], in a tour of six European cities of his own ''Pli selon pli''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pierre Boulez: ''Pli selon pli''|url=http://www.barbarahannigan.com/press/boulez-reviews|publisher=Barbara Hannigan|access-date=26 March 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406204042/http://www.barbarahannigan.com/press/boulez-reviews/|archive-date=6 April 2016}}</ref> His final appearance as a conductor was in Salzburg on 28 January 2012 with the [[Vienna Philharmonic]] Orchestra and [[Mitsuko Uchida]] in a programme of Schoenberg (''[[Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene]]'' and the [[Piano Concerto (Schoenberg)|Piano Concerto]]), Mozart (Piano Concerto No.19 in F major K459) and Stravinsky (''[[Pulcinella (ballet)#Pulcinella Suite|Pulcinella Suite]]'').<ref>{{cite web|title=Salzburg Mozartwoche Programme 2012|url=http://www.mozarteum.at/assets/files/Mozartwoche2012.pdf|publisher=Salzburger Festspiele|access-date=25 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120822064647/http://www.mozarteum.at/assets/files/Mozartwoche2012.pdf|archive-date=22 August 2012}}</ref> Thereafter he cancelled all conducting engagements.

In mid-2012 Boulez was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease, probably a form of [[Parkinson's disease|Parkinson's]].<ref>Merlin, 548.</ref> Later that year, he worked with the Diotima Quartet, making final revisions to his only string quartet, ''[[Livre pour quatuor]]'', begun in 1948.<ref>{{cite news |last=Clements |first=Andrew |date=11 May 2016 |title=Boulez: Livre pour Quatuor 'Révisé' CD review—rapturous beauty from the Diotimas |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/11/boulez-livre-pour-quatuor-revise-cd-review-quatuor-diotima-megadisc-classics-classical-music |newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=12 May 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512110247/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/11/boulez-livre-pour-quatuor-revise-cd-review-quatuor-diotima-megadisc-classics-classical-music |archive-date=12 May 2016 }}</ref> In 2013 he oversaw the release on [[Deutsche Grammophon]] of ''Pierre Boulez: Complete Works'', a 13-CD survey of all his authorised compositions. He made his last public appearance on 30 May 2013 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, discussing Stravinsky with Robert Piencikowski, to mark the centenary of the premiere of ''The Rite of Spring''.<ref>Merlin, 549.</ref> 

From 2014 he scarcely left his home in Baden-Baden.<ref>Merlin, 548–9.</ref> His health prevented him from taking part in the many celebrations held across the world for his 90th birthday in 2015, which included a multi-media exhibition at the [[Musée de la Musique]] in Paris, focusing on the inspiration he had drawn from literature and the visual arts.<ref>Barbedette, 12–13.</ref>
[[File:Baden-Baden-Hauptfriedhof-25-Grabmal Boulez-2016-gje.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Boulez's grave in Baden-Baden, 28 November 2016|alt=tombstone bearing Boulez's name and dates]]

Boulez died at home on 5 January 2016.<ref>Merlin, 548–9 and 552.</ref> He was buried on 13 January in Baden-Baden's main cemetery following a private funeral service at the town's Stiftskirche. At a memorial service the next day at the [[Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris|Saint-Sulpice]] in Paris, eulogists included Barenboim, [[Renzo Piano]], and Laurent Bayle, then president of the [[Philharmonie de Paris]],<ref>{{cite news|last1=Roux|first1=Marie-Aude|title=Pierre Boulez, inhumé à Baden-Baden, célébré à Saint-Sulpice|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/musiques/article/2016/01/15/pierre-boulez-inhume-a-baden-baden-celebre-a-saint-sulpice_4847798_1654986.html|access-date=15 January 2016|work=Le Monde|date=15 January 2016|language=fr|archive-date=26 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626200032/https://www.lemonde.fr/musiques/article/2016/01/15/pierre-boulez-inhume-a-baden-baden-celebre-a-saint-sulpice_4847798_1654986.html|url-status=live}}</ref> whose large concert hall had been inaugurated the previous year, thanks in part to Boulez's influence.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Roux|first1=Marie-Aude|title=La Philharmonie de Paris a inauguré la grande salle Pierre Boulez|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/musiques/article/2016/10/26/pierre-boulez-donne-son-nom-a-la-salle-de-concerts-de-la-philharmonie_5020496_1654986.html|access-date=10 May 2018|work=[[Le Monde]]|date=26 October 2016| language=fr}}</ref>

==Compositions==
{{See also|List of compositions by Pierre Boulez}}

===Juvenilia and student works===

Boulez's earliest surviving compositions date from his school days in 1942–43, mostly songs on texts by [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]], [[Gautier le Leu|Gautier]] and [[Rainer Maria Rilke|Rilke]].<ref>Meïmoun, 15 (note).</ref> Gerald Bennett describes the pieces as "modest, delicate and rather anonymous [employing] a certain number of standard elements of French salon music of the time—whole-tone scales, pentatonic scales and polytonality".<ref>Bennett, 41.</ref>

As a student at the Conservatoire Boulez composed a series of pieces influenced first by Honegger and [[André Jolivet|Jolivet]] (''Prelude, Toccata and Scherzo'' and ''Nocturne'' for solo piano (1944–45))<ref>Meïmoun, 22.</ref> and then by Messiaen (''Trois psalmodies'' for piano (1945) and a Quartet for four ondes Martenot (1945–46)).<ref>Bennett, 46–49; Jameux, 13; Campbell and O'Hagan, 29.</ref> The encounter with Schoenberg—through his studies with Leibowitz—was the catalyst for his first piece of serial music, the ''Thème et variations'' for piano, left hand (1945). Peter O'Hagan describes it as "his boldest and most ambitious work to date".<ref>O'Hagan, 31.</ref>
{{clear}}

===''Douze notations'' and the work in progress===
Boulez completed ''Douze notations'' in December 1945. It is in these twelve aphoristic pieces for piano, each twelve bars long, that Bennett first detects the influence of Webern.<ref>Bennett, 54.</ref> Shortly after the composition of the piano original, Boulez attempted an (unperformed and unpublished) orchestration of eleven of the pieces.<ref>O'Hagan, 38–47.</ref> Over a decade later he re-used two of them{{refn|Nos. 5 and 9.|group=n}} in instrumental interludes in his ''Improvisation I sur Mallarmé''.<ref>O'Hagan, 44.</ref> Then in the mid-1970s he embarked on a further, more radical transformation of the ''Notations'' into extended works for very large orchestra,<ref>Samuel (2002), 428.</ref> a project which occupied him to the end of his life.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://explorethescore.org/pgs/boulez/history_and_context/musical_metamorphoses.html |title=Musical Metamorphoses |last1=Bleek |first1=Thobias |website=Klaver-Festival Ruhr |access-date=10 December 2023 |archive-date=10 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210082111/https://explorethescore.org/pgs/boulez/history_and_context/musical_metamorphoses.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

''Notations'' was only the most extreme example of Boulez's tendency to revisit earlier works: "as long as my ideas have not exhausted every possibility of proliferation they stay in my mind".<ref>Griffiths (1978), 49.</ref> Robert Piencikowski characterises this in part as "an obsessional concern for perfection" and observes that with some pieces "one could speak of successive distinct versions, each one presenting a particular state of the musical material, without the successor invalidating the previous one or vice versa"—although he notes that Boulez almost invariably vetoed the performance of previous versions.<ref>Campbell and O'Hagan, 93 and 96.</ref>

===First published works===
The ''Sonatine'' for flute and piano (1946–1949) was the first work Boulez allowed to be published. A serial work of great energy, its single-movement form was influenced by Schoenberg's [[Chamber Symphony No. 1 (Schoenberg)|Chamber Symphony No. 1]].<ref>Jameux, 228.</ref> Bennett finds in the piece a tone new to Boulez's writing: "a sharp, brittle violence juxtaposed against an extreme sensitivity and delicacy".<ref>Bennett, 57.</ref> In the [[Piano sonatas (Boulez)|Piano Sonata No. 1]] (1946–49) the biographer [[Dominique Jameux]] highlights the sheer number of different kinds of attack in its two short movements—and the frequent accelerations of tempo in the second movement—which together create a feeling of "instrumental delirium".<ref>Jameux, 239.</ref>

There followed two cantatas based on the poetry of René Char. Of ''Le Visage nuptial''{{refn|group=n|name=visage}} [[Paul Griffiths (writer)|Paul Griffiths]] observes that "Char's five poems speak in hard-edged surrealist imagery of an ecstatic sexual passion", which Boulez reflected in music "on the borders of fevered hysteria". In its original version (1946–47) the piece was scored for small forces (soprano, contralto, two ondes Martenot, piano and percussion). Forty years later Boulez arrived at the definitive version for soprano, mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra (1985–1989).<ref name=Visage /> ''Le Soleil des eaux''{{refn|group=n|name=soleil}} (1948) originated in incidental music for a radio drama by Char. It went through three further versions before reaching its final form in 1965 as a piece for soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra.<ref>Samuel (2002), 422.</ref> The first movement (''Complainte du lézard amoureux''{{refn|Lament of the Lovesick Lizard.|group=n}}) is a love song addressed by a lizard to a goldfinch in the heat of a summer day;<ref>Jameux, 23, 40, 257.</ref> the second (''La Sorgue'') is a violent, incantatory protest against the pollution of the river [[Sorgue]].<ref>Griffiths (1978), 18–19.</ref>

The [[Piano sonatas (Boulez)|Second Piano Sonata]] (1947–48) is a half-hour work which requires formidable technical prowess from the performer.<ref>Goldman, 7.</ref> Its four movements follow the standard pattern of a classical sonata but in each of them Boulez subverts the traditional model.<ref>Boulez (1975), 41–42.</ref> For Griffiths the violent character of much of the music "is not just superficial: it is expressive of … a need to obliterate what had gone before".<ref name="Griffiths 1978, 16">Griffiths (1978), 16.</ref> Boulez played the work for [[Aaron Copland]], who asked: "But must we start a revolution all over again?"—"Yes, mercilessly", Boulez replied.<ref>Ross, 378.</ref>

===Total serialism===
That revolution entered its most extreme phase in 1950–1952, when Boulez developed a technique in which not only pitch but other musical parameters—duration, dynamics, timbre and attack—were organised according to serial principles, an approach known as total [[serialism]] or [[punctualism]]. Messiaen had already made an experiment in this direction in his [[Quatre Études de rythme#"Mode de valeurs et d'intensités"|''Mode de valeurs et d'intensités'']]{{refn|Mode of Duration and Dynamics.|group=n}} for piano (1949). Boulez's first sketches towards total serialism appeared in parts of ''[[Livre pour quatuor]]''<ref>Peyser (1976), 32.</ref>{{refn|Book for Quartet.|group=n}} (1948–49, revised 2011–12), a collection of movements for string quartet from which the players may choose at any one performance, foreshadowing Boulez's later interest in variable form.<ref name="Hopkins and Griffiths">Hopkins and Griffiths.</ref>

In the early 1950s Boulez began to apply the technique rigorously, ordering each parameter into sets of twelve and prescribing no repetition until all twelve had sounded. According to the music critic [[Alex Ross (music critic)|Alex Ross]] the resulting surfeit of ever-changing musical data has the effect of erasing at any given point previous impressions the listener may have formed: "the present moment is all there is", Ross observed.<ref>Ross, 363–364.</ref> Boulez linked this development to a desire by his generation to create a ''[[tabula rasa]]'' after the war.<ref name=Toronyi-Lalic>{{cite news|last=Toronyi-Lalic|first=Igor|date=20 July 2012|title=theartsdesk Q&A: Composer Pierre Boulez|url=http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/theartsdesk-qa-composer-pierre-boulez|newspaper=theartsdesk|access-date=14 March 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319022849/http://www.theartsdesk.com/classical-music/theartsdesk-qa-composer-pierre-boulez|archive-date=19 March 2017}}</ref>

His works in this idiom are ''[[Polyphonie X]]'' (1950{{ndash}}51; withdrawn) for 18 instruments, the two ''[[musique concrète]]'' ''[[étude]]s'' (1951–52; withdrawn), and ''[[Structures (Boulez)|Structures, Book I]]'' for two pianos (1951–52).<ref name="Hopkins and Griffiths"/> Speaking of ''Structures, Book I'' in 2011 Boulez described it as a piece in which "the responsibility of the composer is practically absent. Had computers existed at that time I would have put the data through them and made the piece that way. But I did it by hand...It was a demonstration through the absurd." Asked whether it should still be listened to as music, Boulez replied: "I am not terribly eager to listen to it. But for me it was an experiment that was absolutely necessary."<ref name=Toronyi-Lalic />

===''Le Marteau sans maître'' and ''Pli selon pli''===
''Structures, Book I'' was a turning point for Boulez; from here on he loosened the strictness of total serialism into a more supple, gestural music: "I am trying to rid myself of my thumbprints and taboos", he wrote to Cage.<ref>Campbell, 13.</ref> The most significant result of this new freedom was ''[[Le Marteau sans maître]]''{{refn|group=n|name=marteau}} (1953–1955), described by Griffiths and [[Bill Hopkins (composer)|Bill Hopkins]] as a "keystone of twentieth-century music".<ref name="Hopkins and Griffiths"/> Three short poems by Char are the starting-point for three interlocking cycles. Four movements are vocal settings of the poems (one is set twice), the other five are instrumental commentaries. According to Hopkins and Griffiths the music is characterised by abrupt tempo transitions, passages of broadly improvisatory melodic style and exotic instrumental colouring.<ref name="Hopkins and Griffiths"/> The piece is scored for contralto soloist with alto flute, [[xylorimba]], vibraphone, percussion, guitar and viola. Boulez said that the choice of these instruments showed the influence of non-European cultures, to which he had always been attracted.<ref>Boulez (1976), 67.</ref>

[[File:Stephane Mallarme.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|alt=head and shoulders photograph of middle-aged white man with neat beard full head of greying hair|[[Stéphane Mallarmé]]]]
For the text of his next major work, ''[[Pli selon pli]]''{{refn|group=n|name=pli}} (1957–1989), Boulez turned to the symbolist poetry of [[Stéphane Mallarmé]], attracted by its extreme density and radical syntax.<ref>Boulez (1976), 93.</ref> At seventy minutes, it is his longest composition. Three ''Improvisations'' on individual sonnets are framed by two orchestral movements, into which fragments of other poems are embedded.<ref>Peyser (1976), 141–143.</ref> Boulez's word-setting, which in the first ''Improvisation'' is straightforwardly syllabic, becomes ever more [[melisma]]tic, to the point where the words cannot be distinguished. Boulez's stated aim was to make the sonnets ''become'' the music at a deeper, structural level.<ref>Bradshaw, 186.</ref> The piece is scored for soprano and large orchestra, often deployed in chamber groups. Boulez described its sound-world, rich in percussion, as "not so much frozen as extraordinarily 'vitrified{{'"}}.<ref>Boulez (1976), 94.</ref> The work had a complex genesis, reaching its definitive form in 1989.<ref>Samuel (2002), 424–25.</ref>

===Controlled chance===
From the 1950s Boulez experimented with what he called "controlled chance". In his article "Sonate, que me veux-tu?"{{refn|What do you want from me, sonata?|group=n}}, he wrote of "the investigation of a relative world, a permanent 'discovering' rather like the state of 'permanent revolution{{'"}}.<ref>Boulez (1986), 143.</ref>

Peyser observes that Boulez's use of chance is different from [[John Cage]]'s. In Cage's music the performers are often free to create unforeseen sounds, with the aim of removing the composer's intention from the music; in Boulez's music they choose between possibilities that have been written out by the composer.<ref>Peyser (1976), 126–129</ref> When applied to the order of sections, this is sometimes described as "mobile form", a technique devised by [[Earle Brown]], who was inspired by the mobile sculptures of [[Alexander Calder]], whom Boulez met when he was visiting New York in 1952.<ref>Barbedette, 143; Borchardt-Hume, 70–71.</ref>

Boulez employed variants of the technique in several works over the next two decades: in the [[Piano sonatas (Boulez)#Third Piano Sonata|Third Piano Sonata]] (1955–1957, revised 1963) the pianist chooses different routes through the score and in one movement (''Trope'') has the option of omitting certain passages altogether;<ref>Gardner and O'Hagan, 179.</ref> in ''Éclat''{{refn|group=n|name=eclat}} (1965), the conductor triggers the order in which each player joins the ensemble; in ''[[Domaines (Boulez)|Domaines]]'' (1961–1968) it is the soloist who dictates the order in which the sections are played by his movement around the stage. In later works, such as ''[[Cummings ist der Dichter]]''{{refn|Cummings is the Poet.|group=n}} (1970, revised 1986)—a chamber cantata for 16 solo voices and small orchestra using a poem by [[E. E. Cummings]]—the conductor chooses the order of certain events but there is no freedom for the individual player. In its original version ''Pli selon pli'' also contained elements of choice for the instrumentalists, but much of this was eliminated in later revisions.

By contrast ''[[Figures—Doubles—Prismes]]'' (1957–1968) is a fixed work with no chance element. Piencikowski describes it as "a great cycle of variations whose components interpenetrate each other instead of remaining isolated in the traditional manner".<ref>Piencikowski.</ref> It is notable for the unusual layout of the orchestra, in which the various families of instruments (woodwind, brass etc.) are scattered across the stage rather than being grouped together.<ref>Boulez (2003), 101.</ref>

===Middle-period works===
Jonathan Goldman identifies a major aesthetic shift in Boulez's work from the mid-1970s onwards, characterised variously by the presence of thematic writing, a return to vertical harmony and to clarity and legibility of form.<ref>Goldman, xv–xvi.</ref> Boulez himself said: "the ''envelope'' is simpler. The contents are not&nbsp;... I think in my recent work it is true that the first approach is more direct, and the gesture is more obvious, let's say."<ref>Ford, 23.</ref>

For Goldman, ''[[Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna]]'' (1974–75) marks the beginning of this development. Boulez wrote this twenty-five minute work as an epitaph for his friend and colleague, the Italian composer and conductor, who died in 1973 aged 53. The piece is divided into fifteen sections, the orchestra into eight groups. The odd-numbered sections are conducted; in the even-numbered sections the conductor merely sets each group in motion and its progress is regulated by a percussionist beating time. In his dedication Boulez described the work as "a ritual of disappearance and survival";<ref name=SamuelBooklet /> Griffiths refers to the work's "awesome grandeur".<ref>Griffiths (1978), 58–59.</ref>

''Notations I–IV'' (1980) are the first four transformations of piano miniatures from 1945 into pieces for very large orchestra. In his review of the New York premiere, [[Andrew Porter (music critic)|Andrew Porter]] wrote that the single idea of each original piece "has, as it were, been passed through a many-faceted bright prism and broken into a thousand linked, lapped, sparkling fragments", the finale "a terse modern ''Rite''&nbsp;... which sets the pulses racing".<ref>Porter, 88.</ref>

''[[Dérive 1]]''{{refn|Explaining the title in a letter to Glock, Boulez referred to the fact that the music "derived" from material in ''Répons'' but also that one meaning of "dérive" is the drifting of a boat in the wind or current.<ref>Glock, 174.</ref>|group=n}} (1984), dedicated to William Glock on his retirement from the Bath Festival,<ref name="Glock, 139"/> is a short quintet in which the piano takes the lead. The material is derived from six chords and, according to Ivan Hewett, the piece "shuffles and decorates these chords, bursting outwards in spirals and eddies, before returning to its starting point". At the end the music "shivers into silence".<ref>{{cite news|last=Hewett|first=Ivan|date=26 September 2013|title=Ivan Hewett's Classic 50 No 39: Pierre Boulez—Dérive 1|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classical-music-guide/10314695/Ivan-Hewetts-Classic-50-No-39-Pierre-Boulez-Derive-1.html|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=1 January 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102082508/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classical-music-guide/10314695/Ivan-Hewetts-Classic-50-No-39-Pierre-Boulez-Derive-1.html|archive-date=2 January 2017}}</ref>

===Works with electronics===
Boulez compared the experience of listening to pre-recorded electronic music in the concert hall to a crematorium ceremony. His real interest lay in the instantaneous transformation of instrumental sounds but the technology was not available until the founding of IRCAM in the 1970s. Before then he had produced ''Deux Études'' (1951) for [[magnetic tape]] for [[Pierre Schaeffer]]'s Groupe Recherche de la Radiodiffusion Française,<ref>Peyser (1976), 67.</ref> as well as a large-scale piece for live orchestra with tape, ''Poésie pour pouvoir'' (1958){{refn|group=n|name=poesie}}. He was dissatisfied with both pieces and withdrew them.<ref>Rocco, 67; "An Interview with [[Dominique Jameux]]", in Boulez (1981), 201–02; Jameux, 114–16.</ref>

The first piece completed at IRCAM was ''[[Répons]]'' (1980–1984).{{refn|The title is a reference to plainchant, in which the solo singer alternates with a choir. It reflects the interplay between the soloists and the ensemble (or, as Samuel puts it: the individual and the community).<ref>Samuel (2013)</ref>|group=n}} In this forty-minute work an instrumental group is placed in the middle of the hall, while six soloists surround the audience: two pianos, harp, cimbalom, vibraphone and glockenspiel/xylophone. It is their music which is transformed electronically and projected through the space. [[Peter Heyworth]] described the moment when they enter, some ten minutes into the piece: "it is as though a great window were thrown open, through which a new sound world enters, and with it a new world of the imagination. Even more impressive is the fact that there is no longer a schism between the worlds of natural and electronic sounds, but rather a continuous spectrum."<ref>Heyworth (1982).</ref>

''[[Dialogue de l'ombre double]]'' (1982–1985){{refn|Dialogue of the Double Shadow. The title refers to a scene in [[Paul Claudel]]'s play ''Le Soulier de satin'' (The Satin Slipper). Boulez acknowledged that the work had a theatrical aspect.<ref name=SamuelBooklet />|group=n}} for clarinet and electronics grew out of a fragment of ''Domaines'' and was a gift for Luciano Berio on his 60th birthday. Lasting around eighteen minutes, it is a dialogue between a solo clarinet (played live, though sometimes reverberated through an offstage piano) and its double (in passages pre-recorded by the same musician and projected around the hall). Boulez approved transcriptions of the piece for bassoon (in 1995) and for recorder (in 2011).

In the early 1970s he had worked on an extended chamber piece called ''[[…explosante-fixe…]]''{{refn|The title of the work is a quotation from [[André Breton]]'s ''L'Amour fou'': "convulsive beauty will be erotic-veiled, exploding-fixed, magic-circumstantial, or it will not be."<ref name=SamuelBooklet/>|group=n}} for eight solo instruments, electronically transformed by a machine called a halophone, but the technology was primitive and he eventually withdrew it.<ref>Vermeil, 207, 209 and 210; Jameux, 176–77.</ref> He re-used some of its material in other works, including a later piece with the same name.<ref>Campbell and O'Hagan, 297.</ref> This definitive version was composed at IRCAM between 1991 and 1993 for [[MIDI|MIDI-flute]] and two accompanying flutes with ensemble and live electronics. By this time the computer could follow the score and respond to triggers from the players.<ref>Rocco, 68.</ref> According to Griffiths, "the principal flute is caught as if in a hall of mirrors, its line imitated in what the other flutes play, and then in the contributions of the larger ensemble".<ref>Griffiths (1995b)</ref> Hopkins and Griffiths describe it as "music characteristically caught between thrill and desperation".<ref name="Hopkins and Griffiths"/>

''[[Anthèmes|Anthèmes II]]'' for violin and electronics (1997) grew out of a piece for solo violin ''Anthèmes I'' (1991), which Boulez wrote for the Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition in Paris and which in turn derived from material in the original ''…explosante-fixe…''<ref name=SamuelBooklet/> The virtuoso writing for the instrument is captured by the electronic system, transformed in real time and propelled around the space to create what Jonathan Goldman calls a "hyper-violin". Although this produces effects of speed and complexity which no violinist could achieve, Boulez restricts the palette of electronic sounds so that their source, the violin, is always recognisable.<ref>Goldman, 169–172.</ref>

===Last works===
In later works Boulez relinquished electronics, although Griffiths suggests that in ''[[Incises|sur Incises]]'' (1996–1998){{refn|The title refers to the fact that the piece elaborates "on" the piano piece ''Incises''.|group=n}} the choice of like but distinct instruments, spread across the platform, enabled Boulez to create effects of harmonic, timbral and spatial echo for which he previously used electronic means. The piece is scored for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists (including steel drums) and grew out of ''Incises'' (1993–2001), a short piece written for a piano competition.<ref>Griffiths (2005), 105.</ref> In an interview in 2013 he described it as his most important work—"because it is the freest".<ref>Boulez (2017), 249.</ref>

''Notation VII'' (1999), marked "hieratic" in the score, is the longest of the orchestral ''Notations''. According to Griffiths: "what was abrupt in 1945 is now languorous; what was crude is now done with a lifetime's experience and expertise; what was simple is fantastically embellished, even submerged."<ref>Griffiths (2005), 102.</ref>

''Dérive 2'' started out in 1988 as a five-minute piece, dedicated to [[Elliott Carter]] on his 80th birthday; by 2006 it was a 45-minute work for eleven instruments and Boulez's last major composition. According to [[Claude Samuel]], Boulez wanted to explore rhythmic shifts, tempo changes and superimpositions of different speeds, inspired in part by his contact with the music of [[György Ligeti]]. Boulez described it as "a sort of narrative mosaic".<ref name=SamuelBooklet>Samuel (2013).</ref>

===Unfinished works===
Boulez's unfinished works include several that he was actively progressing, and others which he put to one side despite their potential for further development. In the latter category, the archives contain three unpublished movements of the Third Piano Sonata<ref>Edwards, 4.</ref> and further sections of ''Éclat/Multiples'' which, if performed, would practically double its length.<ref name=Schaufler>{{cite web|author=Wolfgang Schaufler|url=http://www.universaledition.com/Pierre-Boulez/composers-and-works/composer/88/aboutmusic|title=Pierre Boulez, About the Music|work=Universal Edition website|date=December 2010|access-date=4 May 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604050736/http://www.universaledition.com/Pierre-Boulez/composers-and-works/composer/88/aboutmusic|archive-date=4 June 2016}}</ref>

Regarding works Boulez was known to be working on in his later years, the premieres of two more orchestral ''Notations'' (''V'' and ''VI'') were announced by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for May 2006, but postponed.<ref>{{cite news |last=Delacoma |first=Wynne |date=29 March 2006 |title=CSO erases Boulez's latest 'Notations' |url=http://contemporarymusic.blogspot.co.uk/2006/03/cso-erases-boulezs-latest-notations.html |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |access-date=18 May 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611162848/http://contemporarymusic.blogspot.co.uk/2006/03/cso-erases-boulezs-latest-notations.html |archive-date=11 June 2016 }}</ref> He was in the process of developing ''Anthèmes 2'' into a large-scale work for violin and orchestra for [[Anne-Sophie Mutter]], but the project did not come to fruition.<ref>Shave, Nick. (October 2005). [https://www.gramophone.co.uk/editorial/anne-sophie-mutter-interview-by-nick-shave-gramophone-october-2005 "Anne-Sophie Mutter, interview by Nick Shave"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180402040030/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/editorial/anne-sophie-mutter-interview-by-nick-shave-gramophone-october-2005 |date=2 April 2018 }}. ''Gramophone''. Retrieved 1 April 2018.</ref>

[[File:JeanGenet-HansKoechler1983-cropped.jpg|thumb|alt=refer to caption|Jean Genet, 1983]]
From the mid-1960s, Boulez also spoke of composing an opera. His attempts to find a librettist were unsuccessful: "both times the writer has died on me, so I'm a bit superstitious about looking for a third candidate".<ref name=Blight /> From the late 1960s he exchanged ideas with the radical French playwright and novelist [[Jean Genet]] and a subject—treason—was agreed on.<ref>Heyworth (1986), 29.</ref> Parts of a draft libretto were found among Genet's papers after his death in 1986.<ref name=ClementsOpera>{{cite news |last=Clements |first=Andrew |date=March 2016 |title=''Pierre Boulez, 1925–2016'' |newspaper=Opera Magazine |location=London }}</ref> Boulez later turned to the German playwright [[Heiner Müller]], who was working on a reduction of Aeschylus's ''[[Oresteia]]'' when he died in 1995, again without leaving anything usable.<ref name=Blight/> In the 1980s he discussed with Patrice Chéreau an adaptation of Genet's 1961 play ''[[The Screens|Les Paravents]]'' (''The Screens''), which was planned for the 1989 opening of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, but this too came to nothing.<ref>Barulich, 52; Boulez (1981), 26.</ref> In a 1996 interview Boulez said that he was thinking of [[Edward Bond]]'s ''The War Plays'' or ''Lear'', "but only thinking".<ref name=Blight/> When news emerged in 2010 that, at the age of 85, he was working on an opera based on Beckett's ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', few believed such an ambitious undertaking could be realised so late in the day.<ref name=ClementsOpera/> When Boulez's manuscripts were assembled and catalogued after his death, it appeared that not a single note of any of these projects had been written.<ref>Galliari, 12.</ref>

==Conducting==

===Approach to conducting===
Boulez was one of the leading conductors of the second half of the twentieth century. In a career lasting more than sixty years he directed most of the world's major orchestras. He was entirely self-taught, although he said that he learnt a great deal from attending Désormière's and [[Hans Rosbaud]]'s rehearsals.<ref>Boulez (2003), 137; Boulez (2017), 37.</ref> He also cited George Szell as an influential mentor.<ref>Rosenberg, 383–84 and 398.</ref>

[[File:Pierre Boulez gastdirigent bij het Concertgebouworkest, Pierre Boulez, Bestanddeelnr 914-7937.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|Boulez conducting at [[Concertgebouw, Amsterdam]], in 1963]]
Boulez gave several reasons for conducting as much as he did. He gave his first concerts for the Domaine musical because its financial resources were limited: "I told myself that, being much less expensive, I would have a go myself."<ref>Boulez (2003), 4.</ref> He also said that the best possible training for a composer was "to have to play or conduct his own works and to face their difficulties of execution"—yet on a practical level he sometimes struggled to find time to compose given his conducting commitments.<ref>Glock, 133.</ref> The writer and pianist [[Susan Bradshaw]] thought this was deliberate and related to a sense of being overshadowed as a composer by Stockhausen, who from the late 1950s was increasingly prolific. The French litterateur and musicologist [[Pierre Souvchinsky]] disagreed: "Boulez became a conductor because he had a great gift for it."<ref>Peyser (1976), 147.</ref>

Not everyone agreed about the greatness of that gift. According to writer [[Hans Keller]]: "Boulez cannot phrase—it is as simple as that...the reason being that he ignores the harmonic implications of any structure he is dealing with, to the extent of utterly disregarding harmonic rhythm and hence all characteristic rhythm in tonal music..."<ref>Kenyon, 394.</ref> [[Joan Peyser]] considered that: "in general Boulez conducts what he loves magnificently, conducts what he likes very well and, with rare exceptions, gives stiff performances of the classic and romantic repertoire".<ref>Peyser (1976), 210.</ref> The conductor [[Otto Klemperer]] described him as "without doubt the only man of his generation who is an outstanding conductor ''and'' musician".<ref>Heyworth (1973), 120.</ref>

He worked with many leading soloists and had particularly long-term collaborations with Daniel Barenboim and with the soprano [[Jessye Norman]].<ref>Vermeil, 179–244.</ref>

According to [[Peter Heyworth]], Boulez produced a lean, athletic sound which, underpinned by his rhythmic exactitude, could generate an electric sense of excitement. The ability to reveal the structure of a score and to clarify dense orchestral textures were hallmarks of his conducting. He conducted without a baton and, as Heyworth observed: "there is no trace of theatre—not even the rather theatrical sort of economy that was practised by [[Richard Strauss]]".<ref>Heyworth (1986), 25–26.</ref> According to Boulez: "outward excitement uses up inner excitement".<ref>Glock, 137.</ref>

Boulez's ear for sound was legendary: "there are countless stories of him detecting, for example, faulty intonation from the third oboe in a complex orchestral texture", Paul Griffiths wrote in ''The New York Times''.<ref name=Griffiths6Jan/> [[Oliver Knussen]], himself a well-known composer-conductor, observed that "his rehearsals are models of clear-headedness and professional courtesy—he effortlessly commands respect".<ref name=SmallHammer/>

===Work in the opera house===
[[File:Gwyneth Chéreau (großer).jpg|upright=.8|alt=Brunnhilde confronting Siegfried in Act 2 of Wagner's Götterdämmerung in the centenary Ring at Bayreuth|thumb|The [[Jahrhundertring|1976 centenary production]] of ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' at the [[Bayreuth Festival]], conducted by Boulez]]
Boulez also conducted in the opera house. His chosen repertoire was small and included no Italian opera. Apart from Wagner, he conducted only twentieth-century works. Of his work with Wieland Wagner on ''Wozzeck'' and ''Parsifal'', Boulez said: "I would willingly have hitched, if not my entire fate, then at least a part of it, to someone like him, for [our] discussions about music and productions were thrilling." They planned other productions together, including Richard Strauss's ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]'' and ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'', Mussorgsky's ''Boris Godunov'' and Mozart's ''[[Don Giovanni]]''. However, by the time rehearsals for their Bayreuth ''Parsifal'' began Wieland was already gravely ill and he died in October 1966.<ref>Boulez (2003), 8; Boulez (2017), 41.</ref>

When the Frankfurt ''Wozzeck'' was revived after Wieland's death, Boulez was deeply disillusioned by the working conditions: "there was no rehearsal, no care taken over anything. The cynicism of the way an opera house like that was run disgusted me. It still disgusts me." He later said<ref name=Blight>{{cite news|title=Boulez and the blight of the opera|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4703931/Boulez-and-the-blight-of-the-opera.html|access-date=27 March 2016|work=The Telegraph|date=7 September 1996|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410170927/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4703931/Boulez-and-the-blight-of-the-opera.html|archive-date=10 April 2016}}</ref> that it was this experience which prompted his notorious remarks in an interview the following year in ''[[Der Spiegel]]'', in which he claimed that "no opera worth mentioning had been composed since 1935", that "a [[The Beatles|Beatles]] record is certainly cleverer (and shorter) than a [[Hans Werner Henze|Henze]] opera" and that "the most elegant" solution to opera's moribund condition would be "to blow the opera houses up".<ref>{{cite news|title=Sprengt die Opernhäuser in die Luft!|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46353389.html|access-date=29 March 2016|work=Der Spiegel|date=25 September 1967|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305171213/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46353389.html|archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref>

In 1967, Boulez, theatre director [[Jean Vilar]] and choreographer [[Maurice Béjart]] were asked to devise a scheme for the reform of the Paris Opéra, with a view to Boulez becoming its music director. Their plan was derailed by the political fallout from the 1968 student protests.<ref>Heyworth (1986), 31–32.</ref> In the mid-1980s, Boulez became vice president of the planned [[Opéra Bastille]] in Paris, working with Daniel Barenboim, who was to be its music director. In 1988 [[Pierre Bergé]] was appointed president of the Bastille opera. He dismissed Barenboim and Boulez withdrew in solidarity.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rockwell |first=John |date=10 June 1992 |title=Suddenly, Opera Is Everywhere in Paris |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/10/arts/suddenly-opera-is-everywhere-in-paris.html |newspaper= [[The New York Times]] |access-date=30 April 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160601141455/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/10/arts/suddenly-opera-is-everywhere-in-paris.html |archive-date=1 June 2016 }}</ref>

Boulez conducted only specific projects—in productions by leading stage directors—when he could be satisfied that conditions were right. Thanks to his years with the Renaud-Barrault company, the theatrical dimension was as important to him as the musical and he always attended staging rehearsals.<ref>Jampol, 10.</ref>

[[File:ParticeChéreau.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|left|upright|Patrice Chéreau]]

For the centenary ''Ring'' in Bayreuth, Boulez originally asked [[Ingmar Bergman]] then Peter Brook to direct, both of whom refused. Peter Stein initially agreed but withdrew in 1974.<ref>Boulez, Chéreau, Peduzzi and Schmidt, 15–16.</ref> [[Patrice Chéreau]], who was primarily a theatre director, accepted and went on to create one of the defining opera productions of modern times. According to [[Allan Kozinn]] the production "helped open the floodgates of directorial reinterpretation of opera" (sometimes known as ''[[Regietheater]]''). Chéreau treated the story in part as an allegory of capitalism, drawing on ideas that George Bernard Shaw explored in ''[[The Perfect Wagnerite]]'' in 1898, and using imagery from the Industrial Age;<ref name=Kozinn>{{cite news|last=Kozinn|first=Allan|author-link=Allan Kozinn|title=Patrice Chéreau, Opera, Stage and Film Director, Dies at 68|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/arts/patrice-chereau-opera-stage-and-film-director-dies-at-68.html|access-date=27 March 2016|work=The New York Times|date=7 October 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928214816/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/arts/patrice-chereau-opera-stage-and-film-director-dies-at-68.html |archive-date=28 September 2015}}</ref> he achieved an exceptional degree of naturalism in the singers' performances.<ref name=Millington/> Boulez's conducting was no less controversial, emphasising continuity, flexibility and transparency over mythic grandeur and weight.<ref>Boulez, Chéreau, Peduzzi and Schmidt, 22–23.</ref> In its first year the production met with hostility from the largely conservative audience, and around thirty orchestral musicians refused to work with Boulez in subsequent seasons.<ref>Wagner, 167.</ref> Both production and musical realisation grew in stature over the following four years and after the final performance in 1980 there was a 90-minute ovation.<ref>Barbedette, 183.</ref>

===Recording===
Boulez's first recordings date from his time with the Domaine musical in the late 1950s and early 1960s and were made for the French Vega label. They include the first of his five recordings of ''Le Marteau sans maître'' (with contralto Marie-Thérèse Cahn), as well as pieces to which he did not return in the studio (such as Stravinsky's ''[[Renard (Stravinsky)|Renard]]'' and Stockhausen's ''[[Zeitmaße]]''). In 2015 Universal Music brought these recordings together in a 10-CD set.<ref>CD set: ''Pierre Boulez, Le Domaine Musical, 1956–1967''. 2015. Universal Music Group, 4811510.</ref>
[[File:Arnold schönberg man ray.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|upright|''Arnold Schoenberg'' (1927) by Man Ray]]
Between 1966 and 1989 he recorded for Columbia Records (later Sony Classical). Among the first projects were the Paris ''Wozzeck'' (with [[Walter Berry (bass-baritone)|Walter Berry]]) and the Covent Garden ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' (with [[George Shirley]] and [[Elisabeth Söderström]]). He made a highly praised recording of ''The Rite of Spring'' with the Cleveland Orchestra and supervised a Webern edition, consisting of all the works with opus numbers. He also produced a wide-ranging survey of the music of Schoenberg with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and recorded the orchestral works of Ravel with the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra.<ref name=60Years/> As for Boulez's own music, in 1969 he made the first recording of ''Pli selon pli'' (with [[Halina Łukomska]] as soprano soloist) and recordings of ''Rituel'' and ''Éclat/Multiples''. In 2014 Sony Classical issued ''Pierre Boulez—The Complete Columbia Album Collection'' on 67 CDs.<ref name=60Years>{{cite news|last1=Clements|first1=Andrew|title=Pierre Boulez: 60 Years on Record|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/26/pierre-boulez-60-years-on-record-cd-review|access-date=7 February 2016|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=26 March 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213040933/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/26/pierre-boulez-60-years-on-record-cd-review|archive-date=13 February 2016}}</ref>

Three operatic projects from this period were picked up by other labels: the Bayreuth ''Ring'' was released on video and LP by Philips; the Bayreuth ''Parsifal'' and Paris ''Lulu'' were recorded for Deutsche Grammophon.<ref>''The Ring'', Philips 6527 115, released 1981; ''Parsifal'', DG 2720 034, released 1971; ''Lulu'', DG 2711 024, released 1979.</ref> For EMI in 1984 he recorded several pieces on [[Frank Zappa]]'s album ''[[The Perfect Stranger (Frank Zappa album)|The Perfect Stranger]]'' with the Ensemble intercontemporain.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rockwell|first=John|date=30 September 1984|title=Meeting of Musical Extremes|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/30/arts/meeting-of-musical-extremes.html|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=9 April 2019|archive-date=17 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717035008/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/30/arts/meeting-of-musical-extremes.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 1980s, Boulez also recorded for the Erato label, mostly with the Ensemble intercontemporain, with a greater emphasis on the music of his contemporaries such as Berio, Ligeti and Carter, as well as a survey of some of his own music, including ''Le Visage nuptial'', ''Le Soleil des eaux'' and ''Figures—Doubles—Prismes''. In 2015 Erato issued ''Pierre Boulez—The Complete Erato Recordings'' on 14 CDs.<ref name=60Years/> 

From 1991 onwards, Boulez recorded under an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. It centred on the orchestras of Chicago and Cleveland in the United States and Vienna and Berlin in Europe.<ref>{{cite web | title=Pierre Boulez: Biography | publisher=Deutsche Grammophon | url=http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/gb/artist/boulez/biography | access-date=29 March 2016 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412151707/http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/gb/artist/boulez/biography | archive-date=12 April 2016 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> He re-recorded much of his core repertoire and oversaw a second Webern edition, including the unpublished works. His own late music featured prominently, including ''Répons'', ''...explosante-fixe...'' and ''sur Incises''. The most significant addition to his recorded repertoire was the multi-orchestra cycle of the Mahler symphonies and vocal works with orchestra.<ref>CD set: ''Boulez Conducts Mahler''. 2013. Deutsche Grammophon, 0289 477 9528 5.</ref> An 88-disc set of all Boulez's recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips and Decca was issued in 2022.<ref>CD set: ''Boulez the Conductor''. 2022. Deutsche Grammophon, 0289 486 0915.</ref>

Many hundreds of concerts conducted by Boulez are held in the archives of radio stations and orchestras. In 2005 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra released a 2-CD set of broadcasts by Boulez, focusing on works which he had not recorded commercially, including Janáček's ''[[Glagolitic Mass]]'' and Messiaen's ''[[L'Ascension]]''.<ref>{{cite web | title=Pierre Boulez at 90, part 2: for the record | date=11 November 2014 | publisher=Chicago Symphony Orchestra | url=https://csoarchives.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/pierre-boulez-at-90-part-2-for-the-record/ | access-date=21 May 2016 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802015108/https://csoarchives.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/pierre-boulez-at-90-part-2-for-the-record/ | archive-date=2 August 2016 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

==Writing and teaching==
According to [[Jean-Jacques Nattiez]], Boulez was one of two twentieth-century composers who wrote most prolifically about music, the other being Schoenberg.<ref>Boulez (1981), 12–13.</ref> It was with a 1952 article with the inflammatory title "Schoenberg is Dead", published in the British journal ''The Score'' shortly after the older composer's death, that Boulez first attracted international attention as a writer.<ref>Boulez (1991), 209–14.</ref> This highly polemical piece, in which he attacked Schoenberg for his conservatism, contrasting it with Webern's radicalism, caused widespread controversy.<ref>Glock (1991), 89–90.</ref>

[[Jonathan Goldman]] points out that, over the decades, Boulez's writings addressed very different readerships: in the 1950s the cultured Parisian attendees of the Domaine musical; in the 1960s the specialised avant-garde composers and performers of the Darmstadt and Basel courses; and, between 1976 and 1995, the highly literate but non-specialist audience of the lectures he gave as Professor of the Collège de France.<ref>Goldman, 4.</ref> Much of Boulez's writing was linked to specific occasions, whether a first performance of a new piece, notes for a recording or a eulogy for a lost colleague. Generally he avoided publishing detailed analyses, other than one of ''The Rite of Spring''. As Nattiez points out: "as a writer Boulez is a communicator of ideas rather than of technical information. This may sometimes prove disappointing to composition students, but it is no doubt a peculiarity of his writing that explains its popularity with non-musicians."<ref>Boulez (1981), 14.</ref>

Boulez's writings have appeared in English as ''Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship'', ''Boulez on Music Today'', ''Orientations: Collected Writings'' and ''Pierre Boulez, Music Lessons: The Complete Collège de France Lectures''. Throughout his career he also expressed himself through long-form interviews, of which perhaps the most substantial are those with [[Antoine Goléa]] (1958), Célestin Deliège (1975) and Jean Vermeil (1989).<ref>Goléa; Boulez (1976); Vermeil.</ref> Two volumes of correspondence have been published: with the composer John Cage (from the period 1949–62);<ref>Boulez, Pierre and John Cage.</ref> and with the anthropologist and ethnomusicologist [[André Schaeffner]] (from 1954 to 1970).<ref>Boulez, Pierre and André Schaeffner.</ref>

Boulez taught at the Darmstadt Summer School most years between 1954 and 1965.<ref>Boulez (1971).</ref> He was professor of composition at the [[City of Basel Music Academy|Basel Music Academy]] in Switzerland (1960–63) and a visiting lecturer at [[Harvard University]] in 1963. He also taught privately in the early part of his career.<ref name="Hopkins and Griffiths"/> Students included the composers [[Richard Rodney Bennett]],<ref>Peyser (1976), 134.</ref> [[Jean-Claude Éloy]] and [[Heinz Holliger]].<ref name=Toronyi-Lalic />

==Character and personal life==
As a young man Boulez was an explosive, often confrontational figure. Jean-Louis Barrault, who knew him in his twenties, caught the contradictions in his personality: "his powerful aggressiveness was a sign of creative passion, a particular blend of intransigence and humour, the way his moods of affection and insolence succeeded one another, all these had drawn us near to him".<ref>Barrault, 205.</ref> Messiaen said later: "He was in revolt against everything."<ref>Samuel (1976), 111.</ref> At one point Boulez turned against Messiaen, describing his ''[[Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine]]'' as "brothel music" and saying that the ''[[Turangalîla-Symphonie]]'' made him vomit.<ref name=TelegraphObituary/> It was five years before relations were restored.<ref name=Poet>{{cite news|last=Benjamin|first=George|date=20 March 2015|title=George Benjamin on Pierre Boulez: 'He was simply a poet'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/20/george-benjamin-in-praise-of-pierre-boulez-at-90|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=9 April 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408092027/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/20/george-benjamin-in-praise-of-pierre-boulez-at-90|archive-date=8 April 2016}}</ref>

In a 2000 article in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', [[Alex Ross (music critic)|Alex Ross]] described Boulez as a bully.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Ross|first=Alex|author-link=Alex Ross (music critic)|date=10 April 2000|title=The Godfather|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/04/10/the-godfather|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=5 August 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170806060925/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/04/10/the-godfather|archive-date=6 August 2017}}</ref> Boulez did not disagree: "Certainly I was a bully. I'm not ashamed of it at all. The hostility of the establishment to what you were able to do in the Forties and Fifties was very strong. Sometimes you have to fight against your society."<ref name=Bully/> One of the most notorious instances of this is Boulez's declaration in 1952 that "any musician who has not experienced‍—‌I do not say understood, but truly experienced‍—‌the necessity of [[Twelve-tone technique|dodecaphonic music]] is USELESS. For his whole work is irrelevant to the needs of his epoch."<ref>Boulez (1991), 113.</ref>{{refn|An article published shortly after Boulez's death in ''The Guardian'' quotes many of Boulez's more provocative statements.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kohda |first=Claire |date=26 March 2015 |title=Boulez in his own words |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/26/boulez-in-his-own-words |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=20 December 2023 |archive-date=20 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220120759/https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/26/boulez-in-his-own-words |url-status=live }}</ref>|group=n}}

Those who knew Boulez well often referred to his loyalty, both to individuals and to organisations.<ref name="Barbedette, 15">Barbedette, 15.</ref> When his mentor, the conductor [[Roger Désormière]], was paralysed by a stroke in 1952 Boulez sent scripts to French Radio in Désormière's name so that the older man could collect the fee.<ref>Peyser (1976), 116.</ref> The writer Jean Vermeil, who observed Boulez in the 1990s in the company of Jean Batigne (founder of the Percussions de Strasbourg), discovered "a Boulez asking about the health of a musician in the Strasbourg orchestra, about another player's children, a Boulez who knew everyone by name and who reacted to each person's news with sadness or with joy".<ref>Vermeil, 18.</ref> In later life, he was known for his charm and personal warmth.<ref name=Nichols6Jan/> Of his humour, Gerard McBurney wrote that it "depended on his twinkling eyes, his perfect timing, his infectious schoolboy giggle, and his reckless compulsion always to say what the other person would not expect".<ref>{{cite news|last=McBurney|first=Gerard|date=12 January 2016|title=Pierre Boulez: 'He was one of the naughtiest of great artists'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/12/pierre-boulez-gerard-mcburney-a-pierre-dream|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=25 May 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425061912/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/12/pierre-boulez-gerard-mcburney-a-pierre-dream|archive-date=25 April 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Paul Klee, 1922, Senecio, oil on gauze, 40.3 × 37.4 cm, Kunstmuseum Basel.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|''Senecio, Head of a Man'' (1922) by Paul Klee]]

Boulez read widely and identified [[Marcel Proust|Proust]], [[James Joyce|Joyce]] and [[Franz Kafka|Kafka]] as particular influences.<ref>Archimbaud, 152–153.</ref> He had a lifelong interest in the visual arts. He wrote extensively about the painter [[Paul Klee]] and owned works by [[Joan Miró]], [[Francis Bacon (artist)|Francis Bacon]], [[Nicolas de Staël]] and [[Maria Helena Vieira da Silva]], all of whom he knew personally.<ref>Barbedette, 149–151, 34–35, 117, 153, 222.</ref> He also had close links with three of the leading philosophers of the time: [[Gilles Deleuze]], [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Roland Barthes]].<ref>Barbedette, 54–55.</ref>

He was a keen walker and, when he was at home in Baden-Baden, spent the late afternoons and much of the weekends walking in the [[Black Forest]].<ref>Peyser (1976), 171.</ref> He owned an old farmhouse in the [[Alpes-de-Haute-Provence]] department of France and built another, modern home on the same land in the late 1970s.<ref>Boulez 2017, 117.</ref>

In its obituary, ''The New York Times'' reported that "about his private life he remained tightly guarded".<ref name=Griffiths6Jan>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/arts/music/pierre-boulez-french-composer-dies-90.html|title=Pierre Boulez, French Composer, Dies at 90|work=The New York Times|date=6 January 2016|access-date=6 January 2016|first=Paul|last=Griffiths|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106185318/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/arts/music/pierre-boulez-french-composer-dies-90.html|archive-date=6 January 2016}}</ref> Boulez acknowledged to [[Joan Peyser]] that there was a passionate affair in 1946, described as "intense and tormented" and which Peyser suggested was the trigger for the "wild, courageous works" of that period.<ref>Peyser (1976), 33–34 and 113.</ref> After Boulez's death, his sister Jeanne told the biographer Christian Merlin that the affair was with the actress [[María Casares]], but Merlin concludes that there is little evidence to support this.<ref>Merlin, 42–44.</ref> Merlin acknowledges the speculation that Boulez was gay. He writes that in 1972 Boulez engaged a young German, Hans Messner, as his personal assistant to look after the practicalities of his life. Messner, who called Boulez 'Monsieur' and whom Boulez sometimes introduced as his valet, lived in the Baden-Baden house until the end of Boulez's life and usually accompanied him when he travelled abroad. Although Merlin observes that in later years it was sometimes difficult to tell whether Messner was looking after Boulez or the other way round, his view is that there is no evidence that they were ever life partners. Towards the end of Boulez's life, Messner blocked Boulez's sister Jeanne from visiting the house. He was with Boulez when he died.<ref>Merlin, 320–321 and 545–553</ref> 

In his portrait for ''The New Yorker'', published shortly after Boulez's death under the title ''The Magus'', Alex Ross described Boulez as "affable, implacable, unknowable".<ref name="The Magus">[[Alex Ross (music critic)|Ross, Alex]] (25 January 2016). [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/25/the-magus-musical-events-alex-ross "The Magus"] ({{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323180040/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/25/the-magus-musical-events-alex-ross |date=23 March 2016 }}). ''[[The New Yorker]]''. Retrieved 26 March 2016.</ref>

==Legacy==
In an article published for Boulez's 80th birthday in ''The Guardian'', the composer [[George Benjamin (composer)|George Benjamin]] wrote that "Boulez has produced a catalogue of wondrously luminous and scintillating works. Within them a rigorous compositional skill is coupled to an imagination of extraordinary aural refinement". By contrast, [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]] described Boulez as "a mannerist, a niche composer, a master who worked with a very small hammer".<ref name="SmallHammer">{{cite news|last=Clements |first=Andrew and Tom Service (compilers) |date=24 March 2005 |title=A master who worked with a very small hammer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/mar/25/classicalmusicandopera2 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=7 May 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306153804/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/mar/25/classicalmusicandopera2 |archive-date=6 March 2014 }}</ref> In a piece in ''The New York Times'' to mark Boulez's 90th birthday, [[Nico Muhly]] emphasised what he called the decadent qualities of Boulez's later music: "You can feel the butter swirling in that pan. And when he conducts it, he teases out these luxurious textures."<ref>{{cite news |last=Woolfe |first=Zachary |date=20 March 2015 |title=Musicians Discuss the Influence of Pierre Boulez |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/arts/music/musicians-discuss-the-influence-of-pierre-boulez.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=14 November 2023 |archive-date=14 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114130742/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/arts/music/musicians-discuss-the-influence-of-pierre-boulez.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1986 Boulez entered into an agreement to place his musical and literary manuscripts with the [[Paul Sacher]] Foundation in Basel, Switzerland.<ref>Merlin, 13.</ref> When he died in January 2016, he left no will. In 2017, the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]] announced that his estate had made a substantial donation of private papers and possessions not covered by the Sacher contract, including 220 metres of books, 50 metres of archives and correspondence, as well as scores, photographs, recordings and about 100 other objects.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bnf.fr/documents/cp_boulez_acquisition_don.pdf|title=Le fonds Pierre Boulez de la BnF s'enrichit grâce à un don et une acquisition exceptionnels|author=Staff|date=26 December 2017|website=Bibliothèque nationale de France|access-date=7 January 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107233532/http://www.bnf.fr/documents/cp_boulez_acquisition_don.pdf|archive-date=7 January 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Paris-Philharmonie1.jpg|alt=refer to caption|thumb|upright=2|center|Philharmonie de Paris: Grande salle Pierre Boulez]]

In October 2016, the large concert hall of the [[Philharmonie de Paris]], for which Boulez campaigned for many years, was renamed the Grande salle Pierre Boulez.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/institution/architecture/philharmonie |title=The Spaces |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Philharmonie de Paris |access-date=27 October 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027193548/http://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/institution/architecture/philharmonie |archive-date=27 October 2016 }}</ref> In March 2017, a new concert hall, the Pierre Boulez Saal, designed by [[Frank Gehry]], was opened in Berlin under the auspices of the [[Barenboim–Said Academy]]. It is home to a new Boulez Ensemble, made up of members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Berlin Staatskapelle and guest musicians from Berlin and around the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://boulezsaal.de |title=Pierre Boulez Saal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Barenboim-Said Akademie |access-date=25 March 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326052847/https://boulezsaal.de/ |archive-date=26 March 2017 }}</ref>

Boulez's music continues to be taken up by interpreters of the next generation. In September 2018 the first edition of the Pierre Boulez Biennial took place in Paris and Berlin, a joint initiative by the Philharmonie de Paris and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim, in which performances of Boulez's music are set in the context of works which influenced him.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/programming/thematic-weekends/1st-pierre-boulez-biennial |title=1st Pierre Boulez Biennial |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Philharmonie de Paris |access-date=8 May 2018 |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806053425/https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/programming/thematic-weekends/1st-pierre-boulez-biennial }}</ref> The second Biennial was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but a modified version went ahead (online in 2020, in person in 2021), with a particular focus on the piano music.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/programming/2020-21-season/|title=Pierre Boulez Biennial|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|website=Philharmonie de Paris|access-date=10 October 2021|archive-date=5 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705094853/https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/programming/2020-21-season|url-status=live}}</ref> The third iteration took place in April/May 2023.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/activity/concert-symphonique/23940-staatskapelle-berlin-daniel-barenboim?itemId=120947|title=Boulez Biennial|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|website=Philharmonie de Paris|date=12 April 2023|access-date=14 November 2023|archive-date=14 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114141551/https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/activity/concert-symphonique/23940-staatskapelle-berlin-daniel-barenboim?itemId=120947|url-status=live}}</ref>

The centenary in 2025 of Boulez's birth will be marked by concerts, exhibitions and other events. The Philharmonie de Paris is presenting a series of concerts featuring his music; it began with a programme of ''Répons'' and other works, played by the Ensemble intercontemporain, joined by former members, the cellist [[Jean-Guihen Queyras]] and the pianist [[Pierre-Laurent Aimard]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/activite/27134?itemId=135191 |title=Anniversaire Boulez |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Philharmonie de Paris |access-date=29 December 2024}}</ref> In its 2024/2025 season, the New York Philharmonic will present two concerts—one of which will be a recreation of a Boulez programme from 1974—and an exhibition.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://playbill.com/article/new-york-philharmonic-to-honor-composer-and-former-music-director-pierre-boulez|title=New York Philharmonic to Honor Composer, and Former Music Director, Pierre Boulez |last=May |first=Thomas |date=17 October 2024 |website=Playbill |access-date=29 December 2024}}</ref> On 26 March 2025 (the anniversary date), as part of a 'Total Immersion Day' at the Barbican in London, the BBC Symphony Orchestra performed the complete ''Pli selon pli'', conducted by [[Martyn Brabbins]], interspersed with films and talks with people who worked with Boulez.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/series/bbc-so-total-immersion-boulez-at-the-bbc/ |title=BBC SO Total Immersion: Pierre Boulez|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Barbican |access-date=29 December 2024}}</ref> In May, [[Esa-Pekka Salonen]] will conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in programmes which will include performances of ''Rituel'', presented in collaboration with [[LA Dance Project]] and choreographer [[Benjamin Millepied]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.laphil.com/events/performances/3126/2025-05-10/esa-pekka-salonen-leads-debussy-boulez |title=Esa-Pekka Salonen Leads Debussy & Boulez |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Walt Disney Concert Hall |access-date=29 December 2024}}</ref> In August, the Lucerne Summer Festival will feature a rare performance of ''Poésie pour pouvoir'' for tape and three orchestras (conducted by [[David Robertson (conductor)|David Robertson]]), as well as ''Répons'', ''Figures-Doubles-Prismes'' and other works.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lucernefestival.ch/en/program/summer-festival-2025 |title=Lucerne Festival, Summer Festival 2025 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Lucerne Festival |access-date=29 December 2024}}</ref> Other series and individual concerts will be presented across the year by the [[Pierre Boulez Saal]] in Berlin,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.boulezsaal.de/en/concerts/boulez-100/ |title=Boulez 100, Celebrating a Visionary Artist |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Pierre Boulez Saal |access-date=29 December 2024}}</ref> the [[Festspielhaus Baden-Baden]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.festspielhaus.de/en/program/ |title=Program|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Festspielhaus Baden-Baden |access-date=29 December 2024}}</ref> the London Symphony Orchestra<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lso.co.uk/boulez-100/ |title=Boulez 100|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=London Symphony Orchestra |access-date=29 December 2024}}</ref> and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/en/konzerte/7th-soiree/10572/ |title=7th Soirée|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Wiener Philharmoniker |access-date=29 December 2024}}</ref>

==Honours and awards==
State honours awarded to Boulez included Honorary [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE); and Knight Commander's Cross of the [[Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]. Among his many awards, Boulez listed the following in his ''Who's Who'' entry: Grand Prix de la Musique, Paris, 1982; Charles Heidsieck Award for Outstanding Contribution to Franco-British Music, 1989; [[Polar Music Prize]], Stockholm, 1996; [[Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal]], 1999; [[Wolf Prize]], Israel, 2000; [[Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition]], University of Louisville, 2001; [[Glenn Gould Prize]], Glenn Gould Foundation, 2002; [[Kyoto Prize]], Japan, 2009; De Gaulle-Adenauer Prize, 2011; Giga-Hertz Prize, 2011; Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, Venice Biennale, 2012; Gold [[Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture]], 2012; [[Robert Schumann Prize for Poetry and Music]], 2012; Karol Szymanowski Prize, Foundation Karol Szymanowski, 2012; Frontiers of Knowledge Award, BBVA Foundation, 2013, and nine honorary doctorates from universities and conservatoires in Belgium, Great Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic and the United States.<ref>{{cite book|title=Boulez, Pierre, (26 March 1925–5 Jan. 2016), ''Who's Who & Who Was Who''. Oxford University Press, 1 December 2016|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U8205|isbn=978-0-19-954089-1|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-8205}}</ref>

==Notes, references and sources==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}

===References===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Aguila |first=Jesus |year=1992 |title=Le Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez et vingt ans de creation contemporaine |trans-title=Le Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez and Twenty Years of Contemporary Creation |language=French |publisher=Librairie Arthème Fayard |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-213-02952-8|ref=none }}
* {{cite book |last=Akoka |first=Gérard |year=2015 |title=Entretiens de Pierre Boulez avec Gérard Akoka |trans-title=Interviews of Pierre Boulez with Gérard Akoka |language=French |publisher=Éditions Minerve |location=French |isbn=978-2-86931-138-1 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Archimbaud |first=Michel |year=2016 |title=Pierre Boulez. Entretiens avec Michel Archimbaud |trans-title=Pierre Boulez. Interviews with Michel Archimbaud |language=French |publisher=Éditions Gallimard |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-07-041828-2 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Barbedette |editor-first=Sarah |year=2015 |title=Pierre Boulez |publisher=Actes Sud |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-330-04796-2 |ref=none}} [Catalogue of the exhibition at the Musée de la musique in Paris, 17 March to 28 June 2015]
* {{cite book |last=Barrault |first=Jean-Louis |translator=Jonathan Griffin |year=1974 |title=Memories for Tomorrow |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=London |isbn=978-0-500-01086-0 |ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Barulich |first=Frances |date=September 1988 |title=[Review of recently published books by and about Boulez, including Boulez 1981, Glock 1986 etc.] |journal=[[Notes (journal)|Notes]] |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=48–52 |doi=10.2307/941392 |jstor=941392 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Borchardt-Hume |first=Achim |year=2015 |title=Alexander Calder–Performing Sculpture |publisher=[[Tate Publishing Ltd|Tate Publishing]] |location=London |isbn=978-1-84976-344-8 |ref=none}}
* Boulez, Pierre. 1971. ''Boulez on Music Today'', translated by Susan Bradshaw and Richard Rodney Bennett. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-674-08006-5 }}.
* Boulez, Pierre. 1976. ''Conversations with Célestin Deliège''. London: Ernst Eulenburg Ltd. {{ISBN|978-0-903873-22-2}}.
* Boulez, Pierre and Patrice Chéreau, Richard Peduzzi, Jacques Schmidt. 1980. ''Histoire d'un Ring'' with additional texts by Sylvie de Nussac and François Regnault (in French). Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont. {{ISBN|978-2-253-02853-6}}.
* Boulez, Pierre. 1986. ''Orientations: Collected Writings'', collected and edited by Jean-Jacques Nattiez, translated by [[Martin Cooper (musicologist)|Martin Cooper]]. London: Faber & Faber, 1986. {{ISBN|978-0-571-13835-7}}.
* Boulez, Pierre and John Cage. 1990. ''Correspondence et documents'', edited by Jean-Jacques Nattiez with Françoise Davoine, Hans Oesch and Robert Piencikowski (in French). Basel: Amadeus Verlag. {{ISBN|978-3-905049-37-4}}.
* Boulez, Pierre. 1991. ''Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship'', collected and presented by Paule Thévenin, translated by Stephen Walsh, 209–14. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-311210-0}}.
* Boulez, Pierre. 1995. ''Points de repère, I: Imaginer'', edited by Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Sophie Galaise, with the collaboration of Robert Piecikowski (in French). Musique/passé/présent. Paris: Christian Bourgois. {{ISBN|978-2-267-01286-6}}.
* Boulez, Pierre and André Schaeffner. 1998. ''Correspondence, 1954–1970'', edited by Rosângela Pereira de Tugny (in French). Paris: Fayard. {{ISBN|978-2-213-60093-2}}.
* Boulez, Pierre. 2003. ''Boulez on Conducting. Conversations with Cécile Gilly'', translated by Richard Stokes. London: Faber & Faber. {{ISBN|978-0-571-21967-4}}.
* Boulez, Pierre. 2005a. ''Points de repère, II: Regards sur autrui'', edited by Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Sophie Galaise (in French). Musique/passé/présent. Paris: Christian Bourgois. {{ISBN|978-2-267-01750-2}}.
* Boulez, Pierre. 2005b. ''Points de repère, III: Leçons de musique: Deux décennies d'enseignement au Collège de France (1976–1995)'', edited by Jean-Jacques Nattiez (in French). Musique/passé/présent. Paris: Christian Bourgois. {{ISBN|978-2-267-01757-1}}.
* Boulez, Pierre. 2017. ''Entretiens de Pierre Boulez, 1983–2013, recueillis par Bruno Serrou'' (in French). Château-Gontier: Éditions Aedam Musicae. {{ISBN|978-2-919046-34-8}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Edward |last2=O'Hagan |first2=Peter |title=Pierre Boulez Studies |date=13 October 2016 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-107-06265-8|ref=none }}
* {{cite book |last=Di Pietro |first=Rocco |year=2001 |title=Dialogues with Boulez |publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc. |location=Lanham |isbn=978-0-8108-3932-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=Allen |date=June 1989 |title=Unpublished Bouleziana at the Paul Sacher Foundation |journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]] |issue=169 |pages=4–15 |doi=10.1017/S0040298200025109 |jstor=945317 |s2cid=145773969 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Ford |first=Andrew |year=1993 |title=Composer to Composer—Conversations about Contemporary Music |publisher=Quartet Books Limited |location=London |isbn=978-0-7043-7061-6 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Galliari |editor-first=Alain |year=2025 |title=Le Catalogue illustré de l'œuvre de Pierre Boulez |language=French |publisher=Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris |location=Paris |isbn=979-10-94642-80-1 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Glock |editor-first=William |editor-link=William Glock |year=1986 |title=Pierre Boulez: A Symposium |publisher=Eulenburg Books |location=London |isbn=978-0-903873-12-3}}
** {{harvc |last=Bennett |first=Gerald |year=1986 |chapter=The Early Works |pages=41–84 |in=Glock |ref=none |ignore-err=yes}}
** {{harvc |last=Bradshaw |first=Susan |year=1986 |chapter=The Instrumental and Vocal Music |pages=127–229 |in=Glock |ref=none |ignore-err=yes}}
** {{harvc |last=Heyworth |first=Peter |year=1986 |chapter=The First Fifty Years |pages=3–40 |in=Glock |ref=none |ignore-err=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Glock |first=William |author-link=William Glock |year=1991 |title=Notes in Advance |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-816192-9 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Goldman |first=Jonathan |year=2011 |title=The Musical Language of Pierre Boulez |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-107-67320-5 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Goléa |first=Antoine |author-link=Antoine Goléa |year=1982 |title=Rencontres avec Pierre Boulez |trans-title=Meetings with Pierre Boulez |language=French |publisher=Editions Slatkine |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-05-000205-0 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Griffiths (writer) |year=1978 |title=Boulez |series=Oxford Studies of Composers |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-315442-1|ref=none }}
* {{cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Paul |year=1995a |title=Modern Music and After: Directions Since 1945 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-19-816511-8 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Paul |year=1995b |title=Boulez: Exploding-Fixed |publisher=Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft GmBH |location=Hamburg |oclc=496241633 |ref=none}} [Noted to CD]
* {{cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Paul  |year=2005 |title=The Substance of Things Heard—Writings about Music |publisher=[[University of Rochester Press]] |location=Rochester |isbn=978-1-58046-206-8|ref=none }}
* {{cite book |last=Heyworth |first=Peter |year=1982 |title=Boulez, Wagner and the Road to Répons |series=BBC Promenade Concerts 1982 Season Brochure |publisher=BBC |location=London |oclc=43739920|ref=none }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Heyworth |editor-first=Peter |year=1973 |title=Conversations with Klemperer |publisher=[[Faber & Faber]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-13561-5 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Peter |last2=Simeone |first2=Nigel |year=2005 |title=Messiaen |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=New Haven and London |isbn=978-0-300-10907-8|ref=none}}
* {{cite Grove |last=Hopkins |first=G.W. |others=Revised by Paul Griffiths |title=Boulez, Pierre |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.03708 |ref=none}} {{Grove Music subscription}}
* {{cite book |last=Iddon |first=Martin |year=2013 |title=New Music at Darmstadt. Nono, Stockhausen, Cage, and Boulez |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-107-03329-0 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Jameux |first=Dominique |author-link=Dominique Jameux |translator=Susan Bradshaw |year=1991 |title=Pierre Boulez |publisher=[[Faber & Faber]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-13744-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/pierreboulez00jame |url-access=registration |ref=none }}
* {{cite book |last=Jampol |first=Joshua |year=2010 |title=Living Opera |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford and New York |isbn=978-0-19-538138-2 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Kenyon |first=Nicholas |year=1981 |title=The BBC Symphony Orchestra: The First Fifty Years, 1930–1980 |publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation |location=London |isbn=978-0-563-17617-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bbcsymphonyorche00keny |ref=none }}
* {{cite book |last=Lebrecht |first=Norman |author-link=Norman Lebrecht |year=2001 |title=The Maestro Myth: Great Conductors in Pursuit of Power |publisher=Citadel Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8065-2088-9 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Meïmoun |first=François |year=2010 |title=Entretien avec Pierre Boulez—la naissance d'un compositeur |trans-title=Interview with Pierre Boulez—The Birth of a Composer |language=French |publisher=Aedem Musicae |location=Château-Gontier |isbn=978-2-919046-00-3|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Merlin |first=Christian |author-link=Christian Merlin |year=2019 |title=Pierre Boulez |language=French |publisher=Les éditions Fayard |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-213-70492-0 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=O'Hagan |first=Peter |year=2017 |title=Pierre Boulez and the Piano: A study in style and technique |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London and New York |isbn=978-0-7546-5319-6 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Olivier |first=Philippe |year=2005 |title=Pierre Boulez: Le Maître et son marteau |trans-title=Pierre Boulez: The Master and his Hammer |language=French |publisher=Hermann, éditeurs des sciences et des arts |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-7056-6531-9 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Peyser |first=Joan |year= 1976|title=Boulez: Composer, Conductor, Enigma |publisher=Cassell |location=London |isbn=978-0-304-29901-0 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Peyser |first=Joan |year=1999 |title=To Boulez and Beyond: Music in Europe Since the Rite of Spring |publisher=Billboard Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8108-5877-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/toboulezbeyondmu0000peys |url-access=registration |ref=none }}
* {{Cite AV media notes |title=Boulez: Le Visage nuptial/Le Soleil des eaux/Figures, Doubles, Prismes |first=Robert |last=Piencikowski |year=1990 |type=CD Set |publisher=Erato-Disques S.A. |oclc=705143755 |location=Hamburg |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Ponsonby |first=Robert |year=2009 |title=Musical Heroes, A Personal View of Music and the Musical World Over Sixty Years |publisher=Giles de la Mare Publishers Limited |location=London |isbn=978-1-900357-29-6|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Porter |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Porter (music critic) |year=1988 |title=Musical Events |publisher=Grafton Books |location=London |isbn=978-0-246-13311-3 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Donald |author-link=Donald Rosenberg |year=2000 |title=The Cleveland Orchestra Story, "Second to None" |publisher=Gray and Company, Publishers |location=Cleveland |isbn=978-1-886228-24-5 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Ross |first=Alex |year=2007 |title=[[The Rest Is Noise|The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century]] |publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-374-24939-7 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Samuel |first=Claude |author-link=Claude Samuel |translator=Felix Aprahamian |translator-link=Felix Aprahamian |year=1976 |title=Conversations with Olivier Messiaen |publisher=Stainer and Bell |location=London |isbn=978-0-85249-308-3 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Samuel |editor-first=Claude  |year=1986 |title=Eclats / Boulez |language=French |publisher=Editions du Centre Pompidou |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-85850-342-1 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Samuel |editor-first=Claude |year=2002 |title=Eclats 2002 |language=French |publisher=Mémoire du Livre |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-913867-14-7 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite AV media notes |title=Boulez: Complete Works |first=Claude |last=Samuel |year=2013 |type=CD Set |publisher=Deutsche Grammophon |oclc=985147586 |location=France |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Steinegger |first=Catherine |title=Pierre Boulez et le théâtre |date=2012 |language=French |publisher=Éditions Mardaga |location=Wavre |isbn=978-2-8047-0090-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Vermeil |first=Jean |translator=Camille Nash |year=1996 |title=Conversations with Boulez: Thoughts on Conducting |publisher=Amadeus Press |location=Portland |isbn=978-1-57467-007-3 |ref=none}} Selection of programs conducted by Boulez and a discography by Paul Griffiths
* {{cite book |last=Wagner |first=Wolfgang |translator=John Brownjohn |year=1994 |title=Acts. The Autobiography of Wolfgang Wagner |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London |isbn=978-0-297-81349-1 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Walsh |first=Stephen |year=2006 |title=Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934-1971 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |location=London |isbn=978-0-224-06078-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZagwDwAAQBAJ |ref=none |access-date=20 August 2023 |archive-date=10 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810122544/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZagwDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
{{refend}}

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[[Category:Ivor Novello Award winners]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Kyoto laureates in Arts and Philosophy]]
[[Category:Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin]]
[[Category:Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Members of the German Academy for Language and Literature]]
[[Category:Music directors of the Cleveland Orchestra]]
[[Category:Music directors of the New York Philharmonic]]
[[Category:Ondists]]
[[Category:People from Montbrison, Loire]]
[[Category:Pupils of René Leibowitz]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale]]
[[Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists]]
[[Category:Schoenberg scholars]]
[[Category:Stravinsky scholars]]
[[Category:Twelve-tone and serial composers]]
[[Category:Wagner scholars]]
[[Category:Webern scholars]]
[[Category:Wolf Prize in Arts laureates]]