“Blow the opera houses up!”

“All the art of the past should be destroyed!”

“A musician who has not experienced… the necessity for the dodecaphonic language is USELESS!”

“From Schoenberg’s pen flows a stream of infuriating clichés!”

“The Paris opera is full of dust and crap! Operatic tourists make me want to vomit!”

Pierre Boulez could be provocative and full of contradictions. The gadfly of modern music died on Tuesday at the age of 90. I hope you’ll join me as we celebrate this radical figure of the avant-garde, who in his later years found value even in the music of Strauss and Bruckner.

It’s all Pierre Boulez this morning, from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We “excite the curiosity of the snobs,” on Classic Ross Amico.