January 6, 2016. Pierre Boulez, the great French composer and conductor, died last night in Baden-Baden, Germany.He was 90.Boulez burst on the European music scene in the aftermath of WWII as one of the leading composers of the Darmstadt School.In 1970 he founded IRCAM and in 1976, Ensemble InterContemporain.He started conducting in the 1960s and in 1971 was made the music director of the New York Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London.Later he lead the Chicago Symphony and worked with the Concertgebouw and the Berlin Philharmonic.Even though his own musical sensibilities were very different, he became one of the greatest interpreters of the music of Mahler.Boulez wrote and talked about music more intelligently than most of the professional critics.We mourn the passing of this extraordinary figure.
January 6, 2016. Pierre Boulez, the great French composer and conductor, died last night in Baden-Baden, Germany. He was 90. Boulez burst on the European music scene in the aftermath of WWII as one of the leading composers of the Darmstadt School. In 1970 he founded IRCAM and in 1976, Ensemble InterContemporain. He started conducting in the 1960s and in 1971 was made the music director of the New York Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. Later he lead the Chicago Symphony and worked with the Concertgebouw and the Berlin Philharmonic. Even though his own musical sensibilities were very different, he became one of the greatest interpreters of the music of Mahler. Boulez wrote and talked about music more intelligently than most of the professional critics. We mourn the passing of this extraordinary figure.