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Pierre Monteux
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===San Francisco and the Monteux School=== {{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=Rimsky-Korsakov. Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35|filename=Rimsky-Korsakov. Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35 - 01 The Sea And Sinbads Ship.ogg|title=01 The Sea And Sinbads Ship |filename2=Rimsky-Korsakov. Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35 - 02 The Story Of The Kalandar Prince.ogg|title2=02 The Story of the Kalandar Prince |filename3=Rimsky-Korsakov. Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35 - 03 The Young Prince And Princess.ogg|title3=03 The Young Prince And Princess |filename4=Rimsky-Korsakov. Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35 - 04 Festival At Baghdad The Sea.ogg|title4=04 Festival at Baghdad The Sea|description4=[[Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)|''Scheherazade'' by Rimsky-Korsakov]] performed by the [[San Francisco Symphony Orchestra]] conducted by Pierre Monteux, with violin solo by [[Naoum Blinder]]}}Monteux first conducted the [[San Francisco Symphony Orchestra]] (SFSO) in 1931, and in 1935 at the age of 60 he was offered the chief conductorship. He was doubtful about accepting, both on personal and on professional grounds. He did not want to leave the OSP, his wife did not want to live on the west coast of America, and the orchestra was so low in funds that it had been forced to cancel an entire season in 1934.<ref>Canarina, pp. 121–122</ref> Like most orchestras the SFSO had been badly hit financially by the Depression, and it suffered the further difficulty that many of its former players had left for better-paid jobs in Hollywood studios. That problem was exacerbated by the insistence of the [[American Federation of Musicians|Musicians' Union]] that only local players could be recruited.<ref>Canarina, pp. 120 and 122–123</ref> Monteux nevertheless accepted the appointment. The SFSO concert season was never longer than five months a year, which enabled him to continue working with the OSP,<ref>Canarina, p. 124</ref> and allowed him to conduct the inaugural concert of the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]] on 13 November 1937.<ref name=c132>Canarina, p. 132</ref> In ''The New York Times'' Olin Downes wrote that the new orchestra was "of very high rank" and that the broadcast concert had displayed Monteux "at the height of his powers."<ref>Downes, Olin. [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0A15FB3F581A7A93C6A8178AD95F438385F9&scp=1&sq=NBC+AND+Monteux+AND+powers&st=p "Radio Orchestra Makes Debut Here – NBC's New Symphonic Group, Led by Monteux, is Heard at Radio City"], ''The New York Times'', 14 November 1937, ''quoted'' in Canarina, p. 132</ref> ''The Times'' said of Monteux's time in San Francisco that it had "incalculable effect on American musical culture", and gave him "the opportunity to expand his already substantial repertory, and by gradual, natural processes to deepen his understanding of his art."<ref name=times/> Monteux consistently programmed new or recent music. He generally avoided, as he did throughout his career, [[atonality|atonal]] or [[serialism|serial]] works,<ref>Canarina p. 264</ref> but his choice of modern works nevertheless drew occasional complaints from conservative-minded members of the San Francisco audience.<ref>Canarina, pp. 146–147</ref> Among guest conductors with the SFSO during Monteux's years were [[John Barbirolli]], Beecham, [[Otto Klemperer]], Stokowski and Stravinsky.{{refn|group=n|Monteux regularly invited Stravinsky to conduct the SFSO, giving him generous fees and ample rehearsal time.<ref>Stravinsky, p. 49</ref>}} Soloists included the pianists George Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, [[Arthur Rubinstein]] and Schnabel, the violinists [[Jascha Heifetz]], [[Yehudi Menuhin]] and the young [[Isaac Stern]], and singers such as [[Kirsten Flagstad]] and [[Alexander Kipnis]].<ref>Canarina, pp. 127 (Klemperer), 129 (Gershwin), 130 (Stern), 135 (Heifetz and Rubinstein), 136 (Schnabel), 137 (Stokowski), 141 (Barbirolli, Beecham, Flagstad and Rachmaninoff), 143 (Stravinsky), 144 (Kipnis) and 154 (Menuhin)</ref> Almost all his seventeen San Francisco seasons concluded with [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Beethoven's Ninth Symphony]].<ref>Canarina, John. "CD review: Pierre Monteux in France (Music and Arts 8CDs 1182)", ''[[Classic Record Collector]]'', Spring 2007, Number 48, pp. 73–74</ref> Monteux's SFSO studio recordings were mainly made in the cavernous acoustics of [[War Memorial Opera House]] (without an audience) with the music transmitted over telephone wires to a Los Angeles studio and recorded on film there.<ref>Morgan K., Review of Cascavelle CD set 2372444302, ''Classic Record Collector'', Spring 2003, Number 32, pp. 78–80</ref> Confined to the US for the years of the Second World War, in 1942 Monteux took American citizenship.<ref name=grove/> Monteux wished to continue his work in helping young conductors: "Conducting is not enough. I must create something. I am not a composer, so I will create fine young musicians."<ref name=history>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131019073759/http://monteuxschool.org/monteux-years.html "Monteux Years"], Pierre Monteux School, accessed 23 March 2012</ref> In addition to his classes in Paris and Les Baux in the 1930s he had given private lessons to [[Igor Markevitch]];<ref>Drew, David and [[Noël Goodwin]]. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/17823. "Markevitch, Igor"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 23 March 2012 {{subscription}}</ref> later private students included [[André Previn]], [[Seiji Ozawa]], [[José Serebrier]] and [[Robert Shaw (conductor)|Robert Shaw]].<ref>Previn, p. 11, Bowen, José A. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/20625 "Ozawa, Seiji"], Salgado, Susana. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/25452 "Serebrier, José"], and Steinberg, Michael and Dennis K. McIntire. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/25606 "Shaw, Robert"], all at ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 23 March 2012 {{subscription}}</ref> Previn called him "the kindest, wisest man I can remember, and there was nothing about conducting he didn't know."<ref name=p11/> After a performance conducted by Previn, Monteux said to him, "Did you think the orchestra was playing well? ... So did I. Next time don't interfere with them." Previn said that he never forgot this advice.<ref name=p11>Previn, p. 11</ref> Monteux's best-known undertaking as a teacher was the [[Pierre Monteux School]] for conductors and orchestral musicians, held each summer at his home in [[Hancock, Maine]] from 1943 onwards. Internationally known alumni of the school include [[Leon Fleisher]], [[Erich Kunzel]], [[Lorin Maazel]], [[Neville Marriner]], [[Hugh Wolff]] and [[David Zinman]].{{refn|group=n|The school's website also lists as "distinguished alumni" from Monteux's time and later: Thomas Baldner, [[Anshel Brusilow]], Michael Charry, John Covelli, Marc David, Neal Gittleman, Adrian Gnam, [[David Hayes (conductor)|David Hayes]], [[Sara Jobin]], Anthony LaGruth, Michael Luxner, [[Ludovic Morlot]], Xavier Rist, [[John Morris Russell]], [[Werner Torkanowsky]], [[Jean-Philippe Tremblay]], Barbara Yahr and Christopher Zimmerman.<ref>[http://monteuxschool.org/alumni/ "Alumni"], Pierre Monteux School, accessed 23 March 2012</ref>}} Other Monteux students included John Canarina, whose 2003 biography was the first full-length study of the conductor in English, [[Charles Bruck]], one of Monteux's first pupils in Paris, who became music director of the school in Hancock after Monteux's death,<ref name=history/> and [[Emanuel Leplin]].<ref>Schneider, p. 116</ref> Monteux appeared as guest conductor with many orchestras; he commented in 1955, "I regret they don't have symphony orchestras all over the world so I could see Burma and Samarkand".<ref>Quoted from ''Time'' 28 November 1955 in 'Pierre Monteux in his own words', ''Classic Record Collector'', Autumn 2003, Number 34, p. 18</ref> His successor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky, invited many guest conductors during his twenty-five years in charge; Monteux was never among them, probably, in Canarina's view, because of Koussevitzky's jealousy.<ref>Canarina, p. 211</ref> In 1949 Koussevitzky was succeeded by [[Charles Munch (conductor)|Charles Munch]], whose early career had been boosted by an invitation from Monteux to conduct the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris in 1933.<ref>Holoman, p. 35</ref> Munch invited Monteux to Boston as a guest conductor in the 1951 season. The engagement was greeted with enthusiasm by the critics and the public, and Munch invited Monteux to join him the following year in heading the orchestra's first European tour. The high point of the tour was a performance under Monteux of ''The Rite of Spring'' at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, in the presence of the composer.<ref>Canarina, p. 213</ref> Monteux returned annually to Boston every year until his death.<ref name=CRC34Canarina/> [[File:Monteux-Brook-1953.jpg|thumb|Monteux with the director [[Peter Brook]] at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] in 1953]] For some time Monteux had felt that he should leave the SFSO. He had two main reasons: he believed that a conductor should not remain in one post for too long, and he wished to be free to accept more invitations to appear with other orchestras. He resigned from the SFSO at the end of the 1952 season.<ref>Canarina, p. 208</ref> He briefly reappeared on the podium at the War Memorial Opera House within a year, as co-conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's coast-to-coast American tour, at Munch's invitation. Almost all the members of the SFSO were in the audience, and joined in the ovation given to their former chief.<ref>Canarina, p. 215</ref> After an absence of thirty-four years, Monteux was invited to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1953. The opera chosen was ''Faust'', which he had conducted at his debut at the house in 1917.<ref name=k536>Kolodin, p. 536</ref> The production had what Canarina calls "a stellar cast" headed by [[Jussi Björling]], [[Victoria de los Ángeles]], [[Nicola Rossi-Lemeni]] and [[Robert Merrill]], but the critics, including [[Virgil Thomson]] and [[Irving Kolodin]], reserved their highest praise for Monteux's conducting.<ref>Canarina, pp. 244–245</ref> Between 1953 and 1956 Monteux returned to the Met for ''Pelléas et Mélisande'', ''Carmen'', ''[[Manon]]'', ''[[Orfeo ed Euridice]]'', ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' and ''Samson et Dalila''.<ref>Kolodin, pp. 540 (''Pelléas et Mélisande'' and ''Carmen''), 555 (''Manon''), 556 (''Orfeo ed Euridice''), 560 (''The Tales of Hoffmann)'' and 572 (''Samson et Dalila)''</ref> The Met at that time typecast conductors according to their nationality,{{refn|group=n|Kolodin notes that this policy did not extend to singers: no French singers were cast in Monteux's ''Faust'', despite which "Monteux made the orchestra speak French in a way that evoked much of the special sound in the score".<ref name=k536/>}} and, as a Frenchman, Monteux was not offered any Italian operas. When his request to be engaged for ''La traviata'' in the 1956–57 season was refused he severed his ties with the house.<ref>Canarina, p. 247</ref>
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