1925–1943: Childhood and school days
Pierre Boulez was born on 26 March 1925, in Montbrison, a small town in the Loire department of east-central France, to Léon and Marcelle (née Calabre) Boulez. He was the third of four … See more

Boulez was one of the leading conductors of the second half of the twentieth century. In a career lasting more than sixty years he directed most of … See more

Boulez's first recordings date from his time with the Domaine musical in the late 1950s and early 1960s and were made for the French Vega label. … See more

Early in his career Boulez sometimes performed publicly as a pianist. In 1955 he accompanied the tenor Jean Giraudeau in a recording of songs by Stravinsky and Mussorgsky. Between 1957 and 1959 he gave several performances of his own Third Piano Sonata … See more

Juvenilia and student works
Boulez's earliest surviving compositions date from his school days in 1942–43, mostly songs on texts by Baudelaire, Gautier See more

As a young man Boulez was an explosive, often confrontational figure. Jean-Louis Barrault, who knew him in his twenties, caught the … See more

Boulez also conducted in the opera house. His chosen repertoire was small and included no Italian opera. Apart from Wagner, he conducted only twentieth-century works. Of … See more