Pierre Boulez R.I.P

[Peter]

One of the dominant figures of 20th century classical music has passed away aged 90.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35241250

[Sorrano]

Are there any good conductors left? Sad to hear of his passing.

[PaulD]

This is sad indeed. Just a few days ago there was a rerun of the French show Apostrophes where he was interviewed by Bernard Pivot (probably dating back from the late 80s). An interesting man (a little arrogant I thought but so was Beethoven...)

However, I must humbly say that I do not get his most famous work "Le Marteau Sans Maitre". The title is quite attractive but for me it ends there...I gave the work a few trials and even today I went on YouTube to listen to it. LVB Grosse fugue is a lot more intelligible to me than Boulez's masterpiece. I am not saying there is nothing there, not at all. But I cannot (yet) wrap my head around it! Does any one of you can? If so, how does one open up to that piece?

[Peter]

This is sad indeed. Just a few days ago there was a rerun of the French show Apostrophes where he was interviewed by Bernard Pivot (probably dating back from the late 80s). An interesting man (a little arrogant I thought but so was Beethoven...)

However, I must humbly say that I do not get his most famous work "Le Marteau Sans Maitre". The title is quite attractive but for me it ends there...I gave the work a few trials and even today I went on YouTube to listen to it. LVB Grosse fugue is a lot more intelligible to me than Boulez's masterpiece. I am not saying there is nothing there, not at all. But I cannot (yet) wrap my head around it! Does any one of you can? If so, how does one open up to that piece?

Whilst I admire Boulez as a conductor and musician, I cannot fathom his music!

[Michael]

Whilst I admire Boulez as a conductor and musician, I cannot fathom his music!

That's a relief. I thought it was just me!

[PaulD]

Well, that already makes three of us....let's see if anyone in this forum gets that piece. I wonder what it would mean if none of us did? We all have a taste for classical/serious music. Could it be that truly contemporary music is still inaccessible to us? Perhaps another 50 yrs will be necessary for the piece to become mainstream?

[Albert Gans]

Make that four. As for great conductors still left, there's plenty of wonderful new(er) talent around.
Of course, there are a number of very big names that are now reaching a very respectable age: Haitink, Marriner, Blomstedt, just to name a few. Harnoncourt has just announced his retirement.