Pierre Boulez [LSO Archives]

THERE are many adjectives you could apply to the late, great guru of the avant garde Pierre Boulez, not all of them endorsements. But “formidable” is one that sticks. And as this year is his centenary, there will no shortage of debate about how stern, unbending and aloof this towering figure of 20th- century cultural life could be.

As a conductor, composer, thinker, teacher, his achievements were undeniable. But I recall my terror as a young critic who loved British music, talking to him for the first time and being told with crushing condescension “English composers are what we [in France] call ‘second knives’. They do not cut so sharp.” He specialised in intellectual assault and battery.

To be fair, he softened over time, and I had happier encounters with him in his later life. So I won’t be boycotting the centenary celebrations which get into gear with a tribute concert by the LSO at the Barbican, Jan 26, and a programme of Boulez chamber works by LSO players at the Guildhall School the following day (barbican.org.uk).

His music was invariably complex, hard to grasp, but with a sensuous refinement that was very French and very of its era – which has passed, although its influence can still be felt. Expect more Boulez in the coming weeks: the anniversary itself falls March 26.

• During the 1970s Boulez was in charge at the BBC Symphony: a golden age, some would say, though his current successor Sakari Oramo isn’t doing too badly either, and conducts the orchestra, Jan 24 at the Barbican, in the UK premiere of a trumpet concerto by Kaija Saariaho – the Finnish composer who died in 2023 just after her opera Innocence played to sell-out audiences at Covent Garden. barbican.org.uk

• Coming up at Covent Garden right now is a revival of its stark but powerful Robert Carsen staging of Aida, which discards ancient Egyptian optics – no pyramids or palm trees – and turns Verdi’s opera into a stiff parade of American-style military force. Not altogether comfortably, given events in Washington this week. Runs Jan 28-Feb 12. rbo.org.uk

• Another anniversary this year is the 50th of Shostakovich’s death in 1975; and among tributes for that is a staggered cycle of the composer’s string quartets, undertaken by the Carducci Quartet. He wrote 15, mostly in later life. They count as landmarks of the modern repertoire. And on Jan 29 at Milton Court, the Carduccis play Nos.1, 5 & 9, alongside music by Shostakovich’s pupil (and perhaps lover: they had a complicated relationship) Galina Ustvolskaya – a tortured character whose dark, spare, hard-edged music caused her to be known in Soviet circles as “the lady with the hammer”. barbican.org.uk

• Talking of hammers, Stravinsky’s magnificently brutal Rite of Spring gets a required pounding from the RPO under Vasily Petrenko at the Festival Hall, Jan 26. southbankcentre.co.uk But for something softer on the ear, try Reynaldo Hahn’s Piano Quintet – equally magnificent in its own, French salon manner, played by members of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective. I heard them do this piece a year ago in a country-house context that suited the piece perfectly. Here they bring it to one of Wigmore Hall’s supremely civilised Sunday morning concerts, Jan 26, which should suit as well. wigmore-hall.org.uk