Film / nonfiction / balletfilm

Pierre Boulez - a life for music


Reviews (2)


Classical net

2018

By

By

Mark Sealey

2018

"Lasting over 90 minutes, A Life For Music constitutes a remarkably rounded and perceptive portrait of Boulez ... It uses recollections, analyses and assessments of colleagues such as Daniel Barenboim and Peter Eotvos, as well as family (his brother, Roger). The un-narrated documentary takes a loosely chronological approach from Boulez' early development, through the various phases of his life, of his education, and his work in its widest context. Yet it cuts and intersperses commentary from several decades when relevant in order to arrive at a authoritative and totally convincing summation of just how much of such significance Boulez could not have helped doing throughout his admittedly long life ... The film presents Boulez particularly honestly - he describes his nervousness on first conducting the Sacre du Printemps (also in a splendid performance by the LSO) ... just as much of a treat ... If you have even a minimum interest in the world of contemporary music; if you want to be clearer about Boulez, and perhaps understand better why he was such a great figure in (modern) music; if you already know the musician and his work, then this is an essential DVD so rich and full of material that it cannot fail to communicate the energy, inventiveness and rock-solid musicianship of Boulez".


Presto classical

2018

By

2018

"Director Reiner Moritz, who worked closely with Boulez time and again through the years and almost had a friendly relationship with composer, tries to get as close to the real Boulez as one can possibly get in this documentary. He evolves an intimate portrait about the worldwide renowned and influential avant-gardist ... Excerpts of his own music and exemplary performances of Bruckner, Mahler, Mozart and Stravinsky complete the 98-minute documentary about Pierre Boulez, who died at the age of 90 in 2016. The rhythmic complexities of the Sacre du printemps are notorious but, in the hands of a master of modern music and one of the world's top orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra, the elemental barbarism of the music is thrilling".