How France nationalised Pierre Boulez

From my new monthly essay in The Critic magazine (out now):

… I was not surprised to receive a 72-page book from the Ministère de la Culture, listing all the events the state has planned to salute “the talent, contribution and legacy of this major figure in contemporary creation”, namely the composer Pierre Boulez, born in 1925.

Only France could organise a composer celebration on the scale of the Paris Olympics, and only France could do so without a flicker of admission that the legacy of Boulez is contested and that two centennials of far greater significance are being officially ignored.

Credit to Boulez: no previous composer ever brought French presidents begging to his door. …

photo Betty Freeman/Lebrecht

Read on here.

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