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In a statement issued by the Philharmonie de Paris the family
said Boulez had died on the evening of January 5 in the German
town of Baden Baden.
"Pierre Boulez shone the light of French music in the whole
world. As a composer and a conductor, he always wanted to
reflect on his era," French President Francois Hollande's office
said in a statement.
He was "an extraordinary conductor and composer, who has marked
his era", French Culture minister Fleur Pellerin said.
A radical thinker who became an esteemed figure in the world of
classical music, Boulez broke into the limelight in 1955 when
'Le Marteau Sans Maitre' (The hammer without a master) was first
performed, setting the poetry of fellow Frenchman Rene Char for
contralto and six instrumentalists.
An uncompromising character, Boulez in 1960 signed a declaration
in protest against the war in Algeria, then a French colony, and
was subsequently banned from returning home from Germany, where
he had been living at the time.
The ban was later lifted but he spent much of the rest of his
life in Germany.
As a conductor Boulez worked with some of the world's leading
orchestras and was especially celebrated for his interpretations
of 20th century composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Igor
Stravinsky and Bela Bartok.
As a composer he was known for his development of electronic
music and for his use of improvisation and 'controlled chance',
in which performers have some scope to create their own sounds.
Boulez's career was celebrated last year with a special
exhibition at the Paris Philharmonie.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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