Watching Pierre Boulez Rehearse Elliott Carter

“In Cleveland, the players were bewildered during the first read-through of the score. Tensions flickered and were fanned by Boulez’s effortless, if glum, command of the music’s complexity. He could sing any instrumental part with exact precision … [He] could instantly hear if a note or a player’s timing was off, and he had no inhibitions about locating the exact source of error.”