ON THIS DAY

French-American Conductor Pierre Monteux Died On This Day in 1964

July 1, 2020

2 MIN READ

French-American conductor Pierre Monteux died on this day in 1964.

After studying the violin and viola, and spending a decade as an orchestral musician and occasional conductor, Monteux began to receive regular conducting opportunities from 1907.

He gained prominence through his work with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company from 1911 to 1914, where he conducted the premieres of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and other notable compositions like Petrushka, The Nightingale, Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, and Claude Debussy's Jeux.

From 1917 to 1919, Monteux served as the principal conductor of French repertoire at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He then conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1919–1924), Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra (1924–1934), Orchestre Symphonique de Paris (1929–1938), and the San Francisco Symphony (1936–1952).

At the age of eighty-six, in 1961, he assumed the role of Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until his death three years later. While he was renowned for his interpretations of French music, his true passion lay in the works of German composers, particularly Brahms.

Despite his aversion to recording due to its impact on spontaneity, he made a significant number of recordings throughout his career.

Monteux was also highly regarded as a teacher. In 1932, he established a conducting class in Paris, later expanding it into a summer school at his residence in Les Baux in southern France.

After permanently relocating to the United States in 1942 and becoming an American citizen, he founded a school for conductors and orchestral musicians in Hancock, Maine. Among his notable students in France and the United States who achieved international acclaim were Lorin Maazel, Igor Markevitch, Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, and David Zinman. The school in Hancock has continued to operate since Monteux's passing.