Ni Mei Remembers Pierre Boulez

Violinist Ni Mei shares fond memories with Pierre Boulez (1925–2016) in honor of his centennial. 

My most vivid memory of Maestro Boulez was at my audition for CSO in 2008. After I played my audition, I was told to go back on stage to do some sight reading. Since I knew Maestro Boulez was there, I was super nervous and excited. I made my way through the first couple of pieces in fairly good condition, then turned to the last excerpt. It was a piece of familiar music (I had no idea of the other excerpts I just read), first few pages of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe Suite. My heart sank, never had I expected to play these fast-moving pentatonic patterned passages with changing harmonies and twisting fingering all by myself!  

With a sigh I started, head dizzy and fingers shaking from all the swarming accidentals. Then he stood up from his seat — Maestro Boulez was walking towards the stage! He got in front of me and started to conduct. As I desperately tried to grab the first and last few notes of each passage, I didn’t feel nervous anymore and began to laugh. Afterward, he looked at me without a trace of a smile but a twinkle in his eye and said, “I know it’s hard; that’s why I chose it.” 

Afterward, he looked at me without a trace of a smile but a twinkle in his eye and said, “I know it’s hard; that’s why I chose it.” 

On one of the tours at Carnegie Hall with Boulez, the program included Amériques by Edgard Varèse. The work calls for a very large orchestra with many additional percussion instruments. It felt almost like drowning to be in such a behemoth of an ensemble. But there he was, his slight figure in the usual brown suit and immaculately pressed trousers, eyes soft but steady. At that moment, he reminded me of a Swiss watchmaker, calmly fitting hundreds of little wheels and pieces together with minimal movements and intimate knowledge of the inner complexity of the work — not a drop of sweat and all the power to take absolute control.