Pierre Monteux
A major figure during the golden age of American orchestral music, conductor Pierre Monteux had an exceptionally long career that began in the 19th century, encompassed the premiere of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps, which he conducted, and extended into the 1960s. He fundamentally shaped several American orchestras in the French style.
Monteux was born in Paris on April 4, 1875. His family was of Jewish background but was not religious. Monteux's father was a shoe salesman and had little interest in music, but his mother was a conservatory graduate who gave piano lessons. Monteux started violin lessons at six, and at nine, he was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris, where his classmates included George Enescu and Fritz Kreisler. He also made friends with pianist Alfred Cortot, and at 12, he organized an orchestra of his fellow students to back Cortot's concerts in the Paris area. Monteux became a member of the Quatuor Geloso as a violist and played in various Paris orchestras, including that of the Folies Bergère. His conducting debut came in 1895 as a substitute for Camille Saint-Saëns in a performance of the oratorio La lyre et la harpe; Saint-Saëns was dissatisfied with the organist and demanded to play the organ part himself as a nervous Monteux was drafted to step in. Monteux made his recording debut in 1903 in a group backing tenor Albert Vaguet in an excerpt from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots.
Monteux remained a successful violinist and violist, but in the first decades of the 20th century, more and more conducting opportunities came his way. He often collaborated with ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, and it was through that connection that Monteux came to conduct one of the most famous events in classical music in the 20th century: the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps ("The Rite of Spring") in 1913. Ironically, Monteux personally disliked the work, which caused an audience uproar at the premiere but went on to become acclaimed as a masterpiece. Monteux fought in the French army in World War I. After the war, he began working in the U.S., where he would spend much of the latter part of his career. He conducted several French operas at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in 1919, he became chief conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. There he faced difficulties, for the orchestra's previous conductor, Karl Muck, had been forced out due to anti-German sentiment, and many players had left with him. Monteux remained in his chief conductor's post until 1924, patiently rebuilding the group by auditioning musicians of various backgrounds. The orchestra today still retains traces of Monteux's essentially French style, and he maintained close ties with the group, returning frequently to conduct and make several recordings.
Returning to Europe for a time, Monteux conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam from 1924 to 1934, also picking up the baton next at the new Orchestre Symphonique de Paris in 1929. He shaped that orchestra as well, remaining its conductor until 1938. In 1936, he also became music director of the San Francisco Symphony, remaining there until 1952 and devoting full time to it as storm clouds gathered in Europe. A school for conductors Monteux had established in France was moved to Hancock, Maine, where he lived part-time. Monteux remained active into his ninth decade, leading many European orchestras as a guest conductor and assuming the chief conductorship of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1961. Monteux conducted his last concert in April of 1964, leading the RAI Radio and Television Symphony in Milan, Italy. After a series of strokes, he died at his home in Maine on July 1, 1964. Many of Monteux's 78 rpm recordings, especially those he made with the Boston Symphony for the RCA Victor label, were reissued first on LP, then on CD, and then on streaming media; as of 2023, more than 175 albums featuring Monteux were in print.
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Pierre Monteux: The Early Recordings 1945, Pt. III
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 12 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pierre Monteux: The Early Recordings 1945, Pt. IV
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 12 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pierre Monteux: The Early Recordings 1945, Pt. I
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 25 Mar 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Famous conductors of the past - Pierre Monteux
Symphonies - Released by Preiser Records on 27 Jan 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
PROKOFIEV / GRUENBERG: Violin Concertos (Heifetz) (1937, 1945)
Jascha Heifetz, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky, Pierre Monteux
Classical - Released by Naxos on 17 Mar 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gluck: Orfeo ed Eurydice
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 6 Nov 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Sadko; May Night
London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 7 Feb 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky, Ravel, Coppola & Chabrier: Le sacre du printemps - Le petit poucet (Ma mère l'oye) - Interlude dramatique - Fête Polonaise ( Le Roi malgré lui) - La valse
Pierre Monteux, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
Classical - Released by Infinity on 8 Apr 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
World's Greatest Ballet Hits, Vol. 6
Pierre Monteux, Ernest Ansermet
Ballets - Released by Documents 2 on 13 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteux Conducts Stravinsky, Ravel, Coppola, Chabrier
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, Pierre Monteux
Classical - Released by Ibis on 1 Jul 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milhaud , Debussy, Ravel, Hindemith & Beethoven: Prelude from Eumenides - Nocturnes - La Valse - Nobilissima Visione - Leonore Overture No. 3 - Creatures of Prometheus (Excerpts) - Violin Concerto
Berl Senofsky, Pierre Monteux, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Infinity on 13 Dec 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Romeo and Juliet "A Dramatic Symphony"
Regina Resnik, Andre Turp, Pierre Monteux, London Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Mangora Classical on 21 Dec 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteux in Amsterdam
Classical - Released by Tahra on 20 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel - Daphnis et Chloe
Pierre Monteux, London Symphony Orchestra, Chorus of the Royal Opera House
Ballets - Released by West Oak Records on 23 Apr 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
30 Great Conductors - Pierre Monteux, Vol. 20
Classical - Released by Documents 2 on 13 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scriabin, A.: Poeme De L'Extase (La) / Liszt, F.: Les Preludes (Boston Symphony, Monteux) (1952)
Roger Voisin, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata
Coro Dell'Opera Di Roma, Orchestra Dell'Opera Di Roma, Pierre Monteux
Classical - Released by Cantus Classics on 22 Sep 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Relaxation with Beethoven
Pierre Monteux, Orchestre Symphonique de la N.D.R de Hambourg
Classical - Released by ClassicMelody.fr on 17 Oct 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
César Franck: Symphony in D Minor
Pierre Monteux, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO)
Classical - Released by Music Manager on 31 Aug 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Concerts 1952-1958
Chamber Music - Released by Unchained Melodie on 27 Jun 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milestones of a Legend: Nathan Milstein, Vol. 3
Nathan Milstein, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gregor Piatigorsky, Pierre Monteux, Philadelphia Robin Hood Dell Orchestra, Fritz Reiner
Classical - Released by Intense Media GmbH on 4 Jan 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo