Boulez Turns 80

Other Newspaper Articles: 30 grandes dates d'une carrière exceptionnelle (Le Monde, February 8) Interview by Marie-Aude Roux, Pierre Boulez : "Le seul vrai sentiment d'urgence concerne ma musique" (Le Monde, February 8)

On March 26, French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez will turn 80 years old. The folks at the Présences Festival wanted to honor Boulez, but he will do a series of events with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, so they went with Marc-André Dalbavie instead. On February 8, Le Monde ran a series of articles on Boulez, which you might find interesting. The first one (Les combats jamais achevés de Pierre Boulez, February 8), by Pierre Gervasoni and Marie-Aude Roux for Le Monde, offers some interesting background on the Présences/Boulez story. Composer René Koering, former music director of Radio France, received a petition in 2003, signed by 70 composers from a range of countries, accusing Radio France and, in particular, the Présences Festival of favoritism towards passéiste styles. Koering responded that composers should lay the blame at the feet of Ircam and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, both founded by Boulez. Perhaps as a result, Boulez has done with Présences.