Pierre Monteux, maître / by John Canarina ; with a foreword by Sir Neville Marriner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Canarina, John, 1934-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Monteux, Pierre, 1875-1964.

Monteux, Pierre.

Conductors (Music)--France--Biography.

Conductors (Music).

France.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

353 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Pompton Plains, N.J. : Amadeus Press, 2003.

Summary:

Pierre Monteux became famous at the age of thirty-eight for conducting the riotous world premiere of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in Paris on 29 May 1913. The composer, fearing bodily harm, escaped through a backstage window, while the imperturbable conductor persisted, forever to be identified with the event. He would also conduct the first concert performance and one of the first two recordings of Stravinsky's masterpiece, the other one conducted by Stravinsky himself. Though French by birth (he lived from 1875 to 1964), the distinctively portly man with the walrus mustache resisted being typecast as a French conductor. He could have been a European maestro: he played for Brahms, worked with Grieg, presided over the world premieres of major works by Ravel, Stravinsky, and many others, was Diaghilev's conductor of choice. But it was Monteux's American audiences, especially in San Francisco and Boston, who would love him the most over the course of a long career. He conducted many American premieres, works of Debussy, Falla, Ravel, and among the more than a dozen Boston premieres those of The Rite of Spring and of Mahler's First Symphony.

But ultimately it was his students -- including Marriner, Maazel, Kunzel, Previn, Zinman, and author John Canarina -- who would be his dearest successes, along with the living legacy of the conducting school he founded in Hancock, Maine, in 1943. Canarina, a conductor and teacher of conducting himself, studied with Monteux for seven summers and brings great personal warmth and understanding to this wise, admiring, and honest book, the first full-length biography of the man whom so many knew and loved as "Maitre."

Contents:

Overture: 29 May 1913 17

1. Early Years 19

2. Becoming a Conductor 28

3. The Rite 37

4. Beyond The Rite 45

5. The Met 54

6. The Boston Symphony 61

7. Doris and Pierre 73

8. Amsterdam 82

9. Back to America 95

10. The OSP 105

Interlude: Les Baux 118

11. Arrival in San Francisco 120

12. San Francisco and NBC 129

13. Established in San Francisco 135

14. Recordings and Broadcasts 151

15. The Philharmonic and a Return to Philadelphia and Amsterdam 157

16. Coast to Coast 166

17. Summertime 175

18. Letters to Doris 183

19. Au revoir to San Francisco

But Not Good-Bye 194

20. Return to Boston 209

21. The "Eroica" 216

22. L'Ecole Monteux 223

Interlude: Family Life 238

23. Return to NBC and the Met 242

24. Monteux at Eighty 248

25. Return to San Francisco 259

26. Finally, Traviata: Recordings in the 1950s 272

27. The LSO: Monteux at Eighty-Five 281

28. Principal Conductor 296

29. The Final Year 305

Coda: Closing Thoughts 319

Pierre Monteux's Recorded Repertoire 321

Significant World Premieres Conducted / Pierre Monteux 341.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 342-344), discography (pages 327-340), and index.

ISBN:

1574670824

OCLC:

50851738