Pierre Benjamin Monteux (pronounced [pjɛʁ mɔ̃.tø]; April 4, 1875 – July 1, 1964) was a French conductor who later became an American citizen. After studying violin and viola, and spending ten years as an orchestra musician and occasional conductor, he began receiving regular conducting jobs in 1907. He became well known for conducting the world premieres of several important works, including Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Petrushka, The Nightingale, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, and Debussy’s Jeux, while working with Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes from 1911 to 1914. Over the next fifty years, he led orchestras around the world.
From 1917 to 1919, Monteux was the main conductor of French music at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He later led the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1919–1924), the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra (1924–1934), the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris (1929–1938), and the San Francisco Symphony (1936–1952). In 1961, at age 86, he became the chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until his death in 1964. Though he was famous for performing French music, he especially loved the works of German composers, particularly Brahms. He avoided recording music, believing it limited spontaneity, but he still created many recordings.
Monteux was also a respected teacher. In 1932, he started a conducting class in Paris, which grew into a summer school later moved to his home in Les Baux, France. After moving permanently to the United States in 1942 and becoming an American citizen, he founded a school for conductors and orchestra musicians in Hancock, Maine. Some of his famous students included Lorin Maazel, Igor Markevitch, Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, and David Zinman. The school in Hancock continues to operate today.
Life and career
Pierre Monteux was born in Paris. He was the third son and the fifth of six children of Gustave Élie Monteux, a shoe salesman, and his wife, Clémence Rebecca née Brisac. The Monteux family had ancestors who were Sephardic Jews living in southern France. At least one ancestor was a rabbi, but Gustave Monteux and his family were not religious. Monteux had brothers named Henri, who became an actor, and Paul (1862-1928), who became a conductor of light music under the name Paul Monteux-Brisac. Gustave Monteux was not musical, but his wife had studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Marseille and taught piano lessons. Pierre began taking violin lessons at the age of six.
When he was nine years old, Monteux was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris. He studied the violin with Jules Garcin and Henri Berthelier, composition with Charles Lenepveu, and harmony and theory with Albert Lavignac. His fellow violin students included George Enescu, Carl Flesch, Fritz Kreisler, and Jacques Thibaud. Among the piano students at the Conservatoire was Alfred Cortot, with whom Monteux formed a lifelong friendship. At twelve years old, Monteux organized and conducted a small orchestra of Conservatoire students to accompany Cortot in performances of concertos in and around Paris. He attended the world premiere of César Franck’s Symphony in February 1889. From 1889 to 1892, while still a student, he played in the orchestra of the Folies Bergère. Later, he told George Gershwin that his sense of rhythm was shaped by playing popular dance music there.
At fifteen, while continuing his violin studies, Monteux began studying the viola. He studied privately with Benjamin Godard, with whom he performed in the premiere of Saint-Saëns’s Septet, with the composer at the keyboard. Monteux joined the Geloso Quartet as a violist and played many concerts with them, including a performance of Fauré’s Second Piano Quartet with the composer at the piano. On another occasion, he was the violist in a private performance of a Brahms quartet given before the composer in Vienna. Monteux remembered Brahms saying, “It takes the French to play my music properly. The Germans all play it much too heavily.” He remained a member of the Geloso Quartet until 1911. With Johannes Wolff and Joseph Hollman, he also played chamber music for Grieg. Years later, in his seventies, Monteux performed with the Budapest Quartet without rehearsal or score. When asked by Erik Smith if he could write out the parts of the seventeen Beethoven quartets, he replied, “You know, I cannot forget them.”
In 1893, when he was eighteen, Monteux married a fellow student, the pianist Victoria Barrière. Together, they performed the complete Beethoven violin sonatas in public. Neither family approved of the marriage. Although the Monteux family was not religious, both they and the Roman Catholic Barrières were unsure about an inter-religious marriage. Both families also believed the couple was too young to marry. They had a son and a daughter from the union.
During his early years, Monteux was part of a group that toured with the Casadesus family of musicians and the pianist Alfredo Casella. The group performed pieces they claimed were ancient, supposedly discovered in libraries by the Casadesus family. Later, Marius Casadesus admitted that he or his brother Henri had written the music. In 1893, while still a student, Monteux won a competition for the position of first viola in the Concerts Colonne orchestra. The following year, he became assistant conductor and choirmaster for the orchestra. This connection gave him a link to Berlioz through the orchestra’s founder, Édouard Colonne. Colonne had known Berlioz, and through him, Monteux learned to mark his scores based on the composer’s intentions. He also worked as a freelance musician at the Opéra-Comique, where he played occasionally for several years. He led the viola section at the 1902 premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande under the baton of André Messager. In 1896, he graduated from the Conservatoire, sharing first prize for violin with Thibaud.
Monteux’s first major conducting experience came in 1895, when he was just 20 years old. He was part of the orchestra for a performance of Saint-Saëns’s oratorio La lyre et la harpe, to be conducted by the composer. At the last minute, Saint-Saëns decided the organist assigned to the difficult organ part was not skilled enough and chose to play it himself. He asked the orchestra if anyone could take over as conductor, and the group shouted, “Yes—Monteux!” With great nervousness, Monteux conducted the orchestra and soloists, including the composer, while sight-reading the score. He was judged a success.
Monteux’s musical career was interrupted in 1896 when he was called to serve in the military. As a graduate of the Conservatoire, one of France’s prestigious schools, he was required to serve only ten months instead of the usual three years. Later, he described himself as “the most pitifully inadequate soldier that the 132nd Infantry had ever seen.” He had inherited his mother’s musical talent but also her short, stocky build, which made him physically unsuitable for military service.
After returning to Paris, Monteux resumed his career as a violist. Hans Richter invited him to lead the violas in the Bayreuth Festival orchestra, but Monteux could not afford to leave his regular work in Paris. In December 1900, he played the solo viola part in Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, a rare performance in Paris at the time, with the Colonne Orchestra conducted by Felix Mottl. In 1902, he secured a junior conducting position at the Dieppe casino, a seasonal job during the summer months that brought him into contact
Personal life
Pierre Monteux had six children, two of whom were adopted. His first marriage produced a son named Jean-Paul and a daughter named Suzanne. Jean-Paul became a jazz musician and performed with artists like Josephine Baker and Mistinguett. His second marriage resulted in a daughter, Denise, who later became a sculptor, and a son, Claude, who was a flautist. After marrying Doris Hodgkins, Monteux legally adopted her two children: Donald, who later became a restaurateur, and Nancie, who worked as a dancer before becoming an administrator at the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock.
Monteux received many honors, including being named a Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur and a Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau. He was a moderate in both politics and social matters, supporting the Democratic Party in his adopted country and opposing racial discrimination. He did not follow rules about hiring Black artists. During a time when segregation was legal in the United States, he once said at a restaurant that refused to serve him, "I am colored—pink."
Music making
John Culshaw, a record producer, said Monteux was "a rare person — a conductor who was loved by his orchestras. Calling him a legend would not be enough." Toscanini, another famous conductor, said Monteux had the best baton technique he had ever seen. Like Toscanini, Monteux believed that placing first and second violins on either side of the conductor gave better sound than grouping all violins on one side. His biographer, John Canarina, said Monteux was as devoted to following composers' scores as Klemperer and more so than Toscanini, even though Toscanini was known for strict attention to scores.
Monteux's main job was to keep the orchestra together and follow the composer's instructions. He did not care about looking stylish or making audiences feel excited by his actions.
According to Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Monteux was not a showy conductor. He rehearsed his orchestra carefully and used small, clear movements to guide the musicians. He had a strong understanding of music structure and paid close attention to sound quality. He spoke and moved very little, but expected the orchestra to respond to even the smallest gesture. Erik Smith, a record producer, said Monteux changed the way the Vienna Philharmonic played Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and Brahms's Second Symphony during rehearsals, even though he did not speak German.
Monteux believed rehearsals were important. In 1923, when Diaghilev asked him to conduct Stravinsky's Les noces without rehearsal, Monteux refused. He said, "Stravinsky can do what he likes, but I must follow what the composer wrote." His focus on the score sometimes caused criticism. A music critic named B. H. Haggin said Monteux's performances sometimes lacked quality, even though others considered him one of the greatest conductors. In 1957, Carleton Smith wrote that Monteux treated music like a master craftsman. He was more popular than many famous singers and was invited to lead three major American orchestras. Harold C. Schonberg, a music writer, called Monteux a conductor admired worldwide and said he had "passion and charisma." When asked to describe himself in one word, Monteux said, "Damned professional."
Monteux was often thought of as a specialist in French music, but he loved German composers like Brahms. He was invited to record only one of Brahms's four symphonies, the Second, even though he performed the others live. Critics like William Mann said he was very skilled at conducting Brahms, but others, like Cardus, said he missed some musical details. Jonathan Swain, a reviewer, said no conductor knew more about how string instruments could create different sounds. John Canarina, Monteux's biographer, listed 19 important musical works that Monteux introduced to the world, including The Nightingale by Stravinsky, Daphnis et Chloé by Ravel, and Jeux by Debussy.
Jean-Philippe Mousnier, Monteux's biographer, studied his concert programs. The most frequently performed works were César Franck's D minor Symphony, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, and Brahms's first two symphonies. Works by Richard Strauss were performed almost as often as those by Debussy, and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde was performed as often as Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.
Monteux said he disliked his own recordings because they often felt lifeless. He believed that trying to make a perfect recording could ruin the energy of a performance.
Monteux recorded many musical works during his career. His first recording was as a violist in a piece from Les Huguenots in 1903. He later conducted The Rite of Spring in 1929, which upset Stravinsky because it was a competing recording. Monteux's final recordings were with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1964. He recorded works by over 50 composers. He preferred recording live concerts but was often limited to studio recordings. Some live performances, including those with the Metropolitan Opera and other orchestras, have been released on CD. These recordings show Monteux as a passionate and skilled conductor.
Monteux's recordings, especially those with the Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony orchestras for RCA Victor and with the Vienna Philharmonic for Decca, have remained popular for many years.