A life in music: Composer and conductor Pierre Boulez

It is impossible to imagine 20th-century classical music without Pierre Boulez. Here he is seen with Olivier Messiaen, who taught him composition, in January 1966 Photograph: Corbis

February 21 1964, Paris: As a composer in the 1950s, Boulez worked at the cutting edge, studying with the serialists who turned postwar music on its head. It was in this period that he suggested (whether playfully or not) that the only way to sort out opera was to torch all the opera houses ... Photograph: Erich Auerbach/Getty

March 8 1967, Paris: ... much as he suggested that the only way to break away as an artist was to destroy all art of the past. As a composer, Boulez was similarly uncompromising, blending the hard-edged noises produced by the serialists with the mystical sounds of Messiaen to produce dense, chaotic music all of his own Photograph: Erich Auerbach/Getty

March 27 1980, Paris: When he founded IRCAM, the Parisian music collective he ran for 20 years, modern electronica was born ... Photograph: Diego Goldberg/Corbis

1981, Paris: ... but Boulez is best known as a conductor – on the podium, even in his 80s, still an electrifying force Photograph: Jacques Haillot/Corbis

March 20 1986, New York: He's conducted orchestras all over the world, running the New York Phil and the BBC Symphony Orchestra before setting up his own Ensemble Intercontemporain in France Photograph: Bernard Bisson/Corbis

November 5 2002, Paris: In addition to his concert work, for many years Boulez has also taught music Photograph: Catherine Panchout/Corbis

November 5 2002, Paris: In recent years Boulez has been a familiar face on the shores of Lake Lucerne. In 2003 he set up a special Lucerne academy, bringing together gifted young conductors and composers for a few weeks of intensive study Photograph: Catherine Panchout/Corbis

November 5 2002, Paris: Despite his reputation as a firebrand, as a teacher Boulez is known for his patience – but precision is everything. He's obsessed by clarity, shape, rhythm: the building blocks of all music Photograph: Catherine Panchout/Corbis

November 5 2002, Paris: 'The aim of music,' Boulez once said, 'is not to express feelings, but to express music' Photograph: Catherine Panchout/Corbis