(b Paris, 4 April 1875; d Hancock, ME, 1 July 1964). American conductor of French birth. He was the father of Claude Monteux. He began learning the violin when he was six and at the age of nine entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied the violin with Maurin and Berthelier, harmony with Lavignac and counterpoint with Lenepveu; in 1896 he shared with Thibaud a premier prix for violin. When he was 12 he conducted an orchestra in Paris and elsewhere with Cortot as soloist, and in 1890, while still a student, he was engaged as violist at the Opéra-Comique (where he led his section at the première of Pelléas et Mélisande), and for the Concerts Colonne, of which he became assistant conductor and choirmaster in 1894. That year he also joined the Quatuor Geloso as violist, remaining with it until 1911; he took part in a performance of a Brahms quartet in the composer’s presence. He was conductor of the Orchestre du Casino at Dieppe, 1908–14, and conducted at the Paris Opéra in the 1913–14 season. In 1911, as well as founding the Concerts Berlioz, Monteux was appointed conductor of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and thereby became responsible, between 1911 and 1914, for the premières of Petrushka, The Rite of Spring and The Nightingale, Daphnis et Chloé and Jeux. Each was an outstanding contribution to 20th-century music and dance, and brought Monteux into close contact with Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky and other composers, giving him the basis of his lifelong support and understanding of their music in particular, as well as of French music in general.
Recalled from wartime military service, Monteux went in 1916 to the USA and took up a post at the Metropolitan Opera (1917–19) in charge of the French repertory. Among other works he conducted the American première of The Golden Cockerel. He moved to the Boston SO in 1920, where he introduced a number of recent works to the repertory – mostly French (Debussy, Chausson, Milhaud and others), but also including Bliss, Bridge, Falla, Malipiero, Schreker and Szymanowski. In 1924 he returned to Europe as second conductor (under Mengelberg) of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, and remained with the orchestra for ten years. In addition, he formed the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris in 1929 and conducted it until 1938, giving a large number of first performances, including Prokofiev’s Symphony no.3 (1929). Always concerned with young talent, he founded the Ecole Monteux at Paris in 1932 for the coaching of conductors, and continued this work later at the Monteux (originally Domaine) School at Hancock, Maine (his pupils included Erich Kunzel, Neville Marriner, Lorin Maazel and André Previn). He had returned to the USA in 1936 as conductor of the San Francisco SO, a post he held until 1952; during this period he raised the standard of the orchestra to an international level. He took American nationality in 1942. He was a regular guest conductor with the Boston SO from 1951 and the Metropolitan Opera from 1953 to 1956. In spite of his numerous highly praised recordings, he once said that he hated all the records he made because of the lack of spontaneity in the technique of recording. He preferred live concerts and remained active to an advanced age, accepting his final appointment in London in 1961 as chief conductor of the LSO at the age of 86, on a contract for 25 years with an option for renewal. In this capacity he conducted The Rite of Spring in London in 1963 on the 50th anniversary of its Paris première, and gave noble performances of the German repertory, especially Brahms, and a varied selection of English works. His many memorable recordings with the LSO include Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette, Brahms's Symphony no.2, Dvořák's Symphony no.7, Elgar's ‘Enigma’ Variations and works by Debussy and Ravel.
Monteux was never an ostentatious conductor, preparing his orchestra in often arduous rehearsals and then using small but decisive gestures to obtain playing of fine texture, careful detail and powerful rhythmic energy, retaining to the last his extraordinary grasp of musical structure and a faultless ear for sound quality. He was a Commandeur of the Légion d’Honneur and a Knight of the Order of Oranje Nassau.
‘Conductor of 102 Orchestras’,The Times (31 March 1959)
M. Rayment: ‘Pierre Monteux’, Audio & Record Review, ii/5 (1962–3), 20–24 [with discography by F.F. Clough and G.J. Cuming]
D.G. Monteux: It's All in the Music (New York, 1965) [with discography by E. Kunzel]
J.L. Holmes: Conductors: a Record Collector's Guide (London, 1988), 198–201
MARTIN COOPER, JOSÉ BOWEN, CHARLES BARBER