*** Résumé en anglais seulement ***
"Let me state here that Monteux, almost alone among conductors, never cheapened The Rite or looked for his own glory in it, and that he continued to play it all his life with the greatest fidelity."
- quoted in Robert Craft, 'Conversations with Igor Stravinsky' (1959)
Pierre Monteux was present at the birth of more Twentieth Century Classics than any other musician.
He played in the orchestra at the premieres of:
- Debussy: `Pelleas et Melisande' (1902)
- Stravinsky: `Firebird' ballet (1910).
He conducted the premieres of:
- Stravinsky:`Petrushka' (1911)
- Ravel: `Daphnis et Chloe' (1912)
- Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales (1912)
- Debussy: `Jeux' (1913)
- Stravinsky: `Sacre du printemps' (1913) - scene of a famous riot
- Stravinsky: `Les rossignol' (1914)
- Ravel: `Tzigane' (1924).
- Poulenc: Concerto champetre (1929)
- Prokofiev: Symphony 3 (1929)
But his favorite "modern" composer was Johannes Brahms.
In 1895, the 20 year-old Pierre Monteux met the 63 year-old composer and took part in a private recital of his chamber music.
-- Also recommended by the World's Foremost Authority on the Music of Johannes Brahms.
I am a sucker for Nineteenth Century Conductors who hung around long enough to make modern stereo recordings.
Pierre Monteux was born in 1875 and died in 1964, so he qualifies, along with Bruno Walter, Thomas Beecham, Leopold Stokowski and Otto Klemperer.
Monteux participated in one of RCA's earliest stereo experiments: The 1953 Delibes Coppelia Suite - in this box.
Monteux made his first recording rather late in life - at the age of 54