The centenary of Pierre Boulez’s birth on March 26 has already had a positive outcome: his music is actually being performed more often this year. More than most composers, he has suffered from being known for something other than his own music, remembered far more as a conductor and a leader of musical organizations like IRCAM than as a creative artist. He has also, in a sense, become a musical institution: people who will never see Boulez conduct can attend concerts at the Salle Pierre Boulez in Paris’s Cité de la Musique or at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.
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