Pierre Boulez with the Chicago Symphony, Carnegie Hall, March 2009

"When he first entered class, (Boulez) was very nice. But soon he became angry with the whole world. He thought everything was wrong with music...He was like a lion that had been flayed alive, he was terrible!" - Olivier Messiaen, 1944

Today would have been Pierre Boulez' 100th birthday, which I've been reminded of by more than a few panegyric posters today on social media. I do wonder how many of these admirers have spent serious time with Boulez' thorny, challenging music, or attended one of the countless concerts he conducted here in New York, either as music director of the NY Phil (1971-77) or as a guest conductor with a range of orchestras at Carnegie Hall. (The Phil has posted a selection of archival material on Google, in lieu of programming any of Boulez' actual music this season.)

Having heard Boulez' music and seen him conduct a few times in the twilight of his career, my impression was that he was a formidable, unsentimental character who always seemed to get exactly what he wanted, with the greatest economy of means. Which is more than can be said of most of today's podium dancers.

From the archives:

• Boulez at Messiaen Discovery Concert, Weill Recital Hall, 2008
• Vienna Philharmonic performing  Notations I-IV, and VII, Carnegie Hall, 2010
• NY Phil performing Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna, Park Avenue Armory, 2012
• Boulez conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, 2009

Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, April 2018

"Life is precious.” - Michael Tilson Thomas

When I visited Miami's New World Symphony back in 2018, I had the chance to ask NWS co-founder Michael Tilson Thomas, who had recently announced his departure as Music Director in San Francisco, if he'd ever imagined a New World without him.

“Well, it's not really something I can control," Thomas said. "But, there are many musicians and alumni who have come here repeatedly as coaches who could easily carry on. In that sense, the continuity is already there."

MTT stepped down from New World in 2022, not long after he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a lethal form of brain cancer. (He was succeeded by Stéphane Denève the following year.) Despite a grim prognosis - most patients die in less than a year - Thomas has continued to guest conduct orchestras across Europe and the U.S., including this season's opening night with the NY Phil. All indications were that the cancer was in check, and that if anything, the act of conducting has been its own form of therapy.

"It feels really great," Thomas said after conducting the BSO at Tanglewood in 2022. "It feels restorative.”

But, last month, Thomas revealed to the world that the tumor had returned, and would be canceling all of his future engagements in order to focus on his health. With two exceptions: a long-planned 80th birthday concert in San Francisco on April 26, featuring the SF Symphony and Chorus. And a pair of concerts this weekend in Miami Beach, where he'll conduct the New World fellows one final time in Beethoven's mighty 5th symphony. (Alasdair Neale will handle Mozart's Don Giovanni overture and Piano Concerto No. 14, with Jeremy Denk.) A fitting end to a long and generous musical career.

I'll be in Miami Beach for what I'm sure will be an experience filled with the widest range of emotion; there are still a few tickets left for Sunday's matinee if you plan on joining. 

Matias Tarnopolsky and Gustavo Dudamel at David Geffen Hall, 3/11/25. Peter Matthews

To be frank, I couldn't care less about what the NY Phil is playing in 2026.

For me, yesterday's 2025-26 season announcement at Geffen Hall was about one thing: seeing whether Gustavo Dudamel, who's in town this week to conduct the Philharmonic in Varèse, Ravel and Gershwin, could pass the eye test in front of the media and other interested parties as the Phil's next Music and Artistic Director. Dudamel doesn't take over for two more seasons but, in what's become de rigeur among major orchestras with MD vacancies, he'll do halfsies with the LA Phil next season as "Music Director Designate", leading six weeks of concerts in New York, including opening night. 

Before Gustavo took the stage set up in the Geffen Hall lobby, he was introduced by the Phil's freshly minted CEO Matías Tarnopolsky, who took over in January from Deborah Borda. (No doubt she's hoping it sticks this time.) Tarnopolsky, 54, comes to New York from the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he'd been CEO since 2018. An affable Brit who happens to have been born in Argentina, Tarnopolsky and Dudamel have known each other for two decades, back to when Matías was in charge of artistic planning at the NY Phil (2005-09).

"I can take absolutely no credit for the planning of this season," Tarnopolsky charmingly confessed before ticking off some highlights: the world premiere of David Lang's evening-length choral work the wealth of nations; a crowd-sourced orchestration of Frederic Rwzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated; and a new choral work by Ellen Reid, co-commissioned with the LA Phil. 

And then, with perhaps a bit too much stagecraft, Dudamel entered from stage left, trailed by one of several cameras there to record the event. (At least they didn't have walk-on music.) After warmly embracing Tarnopolsky, Dudamel shared how prior to that morning's rehearsal, he sat in the Music Director's studio for the first time, surrounded by the portraits of past music directors: Mengleberg, Mahler, Toscanini, Bernstein. 

"I'm overwhelmed," he said. "It's a special feeling."