Pierre Monteux

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Pierre Monteux

Background information
Born April 4, 1875
Flag of France Paris, France
Died July 1, 1964 (age 89)
Hancock, Maine, USA
Genre(s) Classical
Occupation(s) Conductor, pedagogue, violinist
Instrument(s) Violin, viola
Label(s) RCA Victor
Associated
acts		 Boston Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
San Francisco Symphony

Pierre Monteux (April 4, 1875 – July 1, 1964) was an orchestra conductor. Born in Paris, France, rue de la Grange Batelière. Monteux later became an American citizen.

Contents

[edit] Life and Career

Monteux studied violin from an early age, entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine. He became a proficient violinist, good enough to share the Conservatoire's violin prize in 1896 with Jacques Thibaud. In his spare time he also played at the Folies Bergères. He later took up the viola and played in the Geloso Quartet which played one of Brahms's string quartets in a private performance for the composer and in the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique, leading the viola section in the première of Debussy's opera, Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902.[1]

In 1911, with a little conducting experience in Dieppe behind him, Monteux became conductor of Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company, the Ballets Russes. In this capacity he conducted the premières of Stravinsky's Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring 1913, with its famous riot as well as Debussy's Jeux and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé. This established the course of his career, and for the rest of his life he was noted particularly for his interpretations of Russian and French music.

With the outbreak of World War I, Monteux was called up for military service, but was discharged in 1916, and travelled to the United States.[2] There he took charge of the French repertoire at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1917 to 1919. He also conducted the American première of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel at the Metropolitan Opera.[3]

He then moved to the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1919-1924). He had a major effect on the Boston ensemble's sound, and was able to fashion the orchestra as he pleased after a strike led to thirty of its members leaving. He also introduced a number of new works in Boston, notably works by French composers.[4]

In 1924, Monteux began an association with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, working with Willem Mengelberg. In 1929, he founded the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, which he conducted until 1935. In the year the orchestra was founded, he conducted it in the world première of Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 3.

Monteux then returned to the United States, and worked with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra from 1935 to 1952. He began recording with the orchestra for RCA Victor in 1941 and made numerous discs in San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House for the next 11 years. In 1943, he founded a conducting school, The Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestra Musicians, in Hancock, Maine, the childhood home of his second wife, Doris Hodgkins Monteux, where Monteux was now living. There he taught such future luminaries as André Previn, Neville Marriner, and David Zinman. In 1946, he became a United States citizen. He made a nostalgic return to San Francisco in 1960 to guest conduct the orchestra and to record Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration for RCA Victor, the only stereophonic recordings he made with his former orchestra.

From 1961 to 1964 he was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He was 86 when he was invited to take the post, and he famously accepted on condition that he had a twenty-five year contract with a twenty-five year option of renewal.[5] With the LSO Monteux gave the 50th anniversary performance of The Rite of Spring, at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in the presence of the composer.[6] In his last studio sessions Monteux recorded a disc with the LSO and his son, the flautist Claude Monteux, the only gramophone recording Pierre and Claude made together.[7][not specific enough to verify]

Pierre Monteux died in Hancock in 1964.

[edit] Musical style

Monteux observed, 'Our principal work is to keep the orchestra together and carry out the composer’s instructions, not to be sartorial models, cause dowagers to swoon, or distract audiences by our “interpretation”'.[8] He advised the young Previn that when orchestras are playing well the conductor should not interfere with them.[9] 'His approach to all music is that of the master-craftsman,' according to an approving critic in 1957.[10] The record producer John Culshaw described Monteux as 'that rarest of beings — a conductor who was loved by his orchestras' and said that 'to call him a legend would be to understate the case.'[11] Toscanini observed that Monteux had the best baton technique he had ever seen.[12]

[edit] Discography

Monteux made a large number of recordings throughout his career. He himself claimed to dislike them, maintaining that they lacked the spontaneity of live performances. Nevertheless many of his recordings have remained in the catalogues for decades, notably RCA recordings with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, and Decca recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the LSO. Some recordings currently (2007) or recently available on CD are:

Bach

  • Suite No 2 in B minor (London Symphony Orchestra, with Claude Monteux, flute)

Beethoven

  • Symphonies 1, 3, 6 and 8 (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra)
  • Symphonies 2, 4, 5, 7 and 9 (LSO)
  • Symphony No 3 (Concertgebouw Orchestra)

Berlioz

Brahms

Claude Debussy

Dvořák

Elgar

Franck

Haydn

Massenet

Mozart

  • Flute Concerto in D major, K314 (Claude Monteux/LSO)

Ravel

Rimsky-Korsakov

Sibelius

Richard Strauss

Stravinsky

Tchaikovsky

  • Symphonies 4-6 (Boston)
  • Swan Lake, excerpts (LSO)

Verdi

Wagner

[edit] Notable premières

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Caranina, ch. 1
  2. ^ Caranina, ch. 4
  3. ^ Caranina, ch. 5
  4. ^ Caranina, ch. 6
  5. ^ Morrison, p. 136
  6. ^ Morrison, p. 137
  7. ^ The Gramophone
  8. ^ Cosman, p. 98
  9. ^ Previn, p. 11
  10. ^ Cosman, p. 98
  11. ^ Culshaw p. 144
  12. ^ Morrison, p. 135
  • Cosman, Milein (1957). Musical Sketchbook. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer. OCLC 3225493. 
  • Previn, André; Foss, Michael; Adeney, Richard (1979). Orchestra. London: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN 0354044206. 
  • Culshaw, John (1981). Putting the Record Straight. London: Secker & Warburg. ISBN 0-436-11802-5. 
  • Caranina, John (2003). Pierre Monteux, Maitre. Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus Press. ISBN 1574670824. 
  • Morrison, Richard (2004). Orchestra. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 057121584X. 
  • Mousnier, Jean-Philippe (1999). Pierre Monteux (in French). Paris: l'Harmattan. ISBN 2738484042. 
  • The Gramophone, August 1964

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Josef Krips		 Principal Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra
1961–1964		 Succeeded by
Istvan Kertesz
v • d • e
Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Directors
George Henschel (1881) • Wilhelm Gericke (1884) • Arthur Nikisch (1889) • Emil Paur (1893) • Wilhelm Gericke (1898) • Karl Muck (1906) • Max Fiedler (1908) • Karl Muck (1912) • Henri Rabaud (1918) • Pierre Monteux (1919) • Serge Koussevitzky (1924) • Charles Münch (1949) • Erich Leinsdorf (1962) • William Steinberg (1969) • Seiji Ozawa (1973) • James Levine (2004) 
v • d • e
San Francisco Symphony Music Directors
Henry Hadley (1911) • Alfred Hertz (1915) • Basil Cameron/Issay Dobrowen (1930) • Pierre Monteux (1935) • Enrique Jordá (1954) • Josef Krips (1963) • Seiji Ozawa (1970) • Edo de Waart (1977) • Herbert Blomstedt (1985) • Michael Tilson Thomas (1995)
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