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Pierre Boulez, classical music's modern maverick: in pictures

This article is more than 10 years old

The great composer, conductor, educator and musical revolutionary has died aged 90. Read the Obituary

Wed 6 Jan 2016 08.28 ESTLast modified on Tue 18 Apr 2017 11.17 EDT
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Pierre Boulez: A 2000 portrait.
A 2000 portrait. The composer and conductor died on 5 January, following several years of ill health.Photograph: BALTEL/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock
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Boulez working with young musicians at the Lucerne Festival in August 2003. In 2004, with festival director Michael Haefliger, he founded the Lucerne Festival Academy, a summer orchestral institute for young musicians, dedicated to music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Working with young musicians at the Lucerne Festival in August 2003. In 2004, with festival director Michael Haefliger, he founded the Lucerne Festival Academy, a summer orchestral institute for young musicians, dedicated to music of the 20th and 21st centuries. (Watch a video of Boulez teaching at the festival in 2008.)Photograph: Sigi Tischler/EPA
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Pierre Boulez: Conducting in California at the Ojai Music Festival in 2003.
Conducting in California at the Ojai Music Festival in 2003. He served as the festival’s Music Director on eight different occasions from 1967 to 2003.Photograph: CATUFFE/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock
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Pierre Boulez: Working with Paris’s Academie De Musique in 1999.
Working with Paris’s Academie De Musique in 1999. He composed less and less in his later years. 1998’s Sur incises for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists was completed in 1998.Photograph: ATTIAS/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock
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Pierre Boulez: With the Paris Orchestra, December 2011.
With the Orchestre de Paris, December 2011.Photograph: SIPA/REX/Shutterstock
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Rehearsing with Daniel Barenboim at the piano for concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 2011 (<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/14/berlin-staatskapelle-boulez-barenboim-review">read our review</a>).
Rehearsing with Daniel Barenboim (at the piano) for concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 2011 (read our review). The two first worked together in the 60s, Barenboim was a great champion of Boulez’s music.Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
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Pierre Boulez: A 2002 portrait taken in Paris, France.
A 2002 portrait taken in Paris, France. Boulez’s last completed composition was 2005’s Une page d’éphéméride for piano.Photograph: Catherine Panchout/Panchout/Corbis
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9 January 1984: Pierre Boulez (R) talking with US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa (C) and French Ministre of Culture Jack Lang (L), at the Theatre de la Ville in Paris, where he directed three works of Zappa.
9 January 1984: Pierre Boulez (R) talking with US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa (C) and French Ministre of Culture Jack Lang (L), at the Theatre de la Ville in Paris, where he directed three works of Zappa.Photograph: Joel Robine/AFP/Getty Images
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1954: (<em>left to right)</em> Olivier Messiaen, Michael Fano and Boulez.
1954: (left to right) Olivier Messiaen, Michael Fano and Boulez. Boulez studied with Messiaen in the late 40s. (Read more about their relationship.)Photograph: Roger-Viollet/REX/Shutterstock
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Pierre Boulez:A portrait from November 1966
A portrait from November 1966. During the 60s he explored aleatoric ideas in his compositions.Photograph: Roger-Viollet/REX/Shutterstock
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Pierre Boulez: 5 Nov 2002, Paris, France.
5 Nov 2002, Paris, France.Photograph: Catherine Panchout/Panchout/Corbis
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