A representative figure and thinker of contemporary music, a composer of the avant-garde and a peerless conductor, Pierre Boulez truly left his footprint in the music of the 20th century. Inspired by the influences of his masters Olivier Messiaen et René Leibowitz, the maestro had tried to experiment codes, to overstep traditions. Through an anthology of works that had marked his life, a real portrait of the committed and reformist musician is depicted during this event.

In this second part of the program, Boulez asks himself about young composers of the 1945 generation, including Stockhausen, Ligeti, Kurtág and more recently Dalbavie. On the roots of this music deeply marked by the difficulties of the post-war period, Boulez thinks they tried to make their music significant in opening it to the other cultures, always insisting while they explored music. On this basis, they brought changes to polyphony and rhythms. He also highlights his own Notations to examine the evolution of his musical inspiration, from the birth of the ideas to their maturation a few decades later.