Status
Available
Call number
Call number
B Bou
Collection
Publication
Macmillan Pub Co (1976), Edition: First Edition, 303 pages
Description
Explores the post-World War II modern music movement through the life of Pierre Boulez, the influential and provocative composer and controversial conductor of the New York Philharmonic.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member jburlinson
An interesting example of what happens when a biographer goes to work on a living subject, this book was written in the mid-'70's, not long after Boulez' tenure at the New York Philharmonic, a tempestuous relationship that left the orchestra, if not the audience, in need of the therapeutic guidance
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of someone like Zubin Mehta. There is a particularly fascinating sexual dynamic at play in Peyser's treatment of Boulez, who appears to have doggedly rejected development of his own sexuality beyond a purportedly hysterical affair early in his life. This brings to mind a quote by Lukas Foss about Boulez: "It's a pity there is no humanity there. Does he have sex? I think not. When men have no sex, they go after power in this big, obsessive way." So the book is a not-so-transparent power struggle between an author who wants to "capture" her subject, and a subject who wants, perhaps not unreasonably, to dominate his own biography. Show Less
Pages
303