‘When you’re not offensive in life, you obtain absolutely nothing,’ declares a twinkly-eyed Pierre Boulez in one of the archive films that the Barbican were screening to celebrate the composer’s centenary. What a joy to be reminded of the young Boulez – the unashamed elitist, the unbeatable snob. Not even allies such as Schoenberg (too trad) and Messiaen (‘vulgar’) were safe from his tongue. To Boulez, pop music wasn’t good or bad; it didn’t exist. Ditto his own life. ‘I will be the first composer without a biography’, he proclaimed. Forget that Boulez was entangled in a love triangle with Camus’s mistress and for most of his time on earth screwing his valet, Hans… The music was everything.
He was, in other words, the embodiment of everything that music, society and Radio 3 today is not. Which made it all the more amusing that it fell to the BBC to organise the birthday celebrations. (He was once the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s principal conductor if you can believe it.)
True to what we’ve come to expect from Radio 3’s controller Sam Jackson, their Boulez Day began with no Boulez. Three and a half hours in and we’d heard works by all the key influences on Boulez – Finzi, Lehar and, of course, Carnival of the Animals – before they considered airing more than a single movement of a single sonata by the composer the day was dedicated to. We Hate Boulez Day would have been a better name for all this.
The Barbican’s Total Immersion programme with the BBCSO had a bit more belief in the possibility that people might actually want to listen to the music.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in