Monteux studied
violin from an early age, entering the
Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine. He became a proficient violinist, good enough to share the Conservatoire's violin prize in
1896 with
Jacques Thibaud. In his spare time he also played at the
Folies Bergères. He later took up the
viola and played in the Geloso Quartet which played one of
Brahms's string quartets in a private performance for the composer and in the orchestra of the
Opéra-Comique, leading the viola section in the première of
Debussy's opera, Pelléas et Mélisande in
1902.
In
1902, Monteux took a conducting post at the
Dieppe casino. The next year,
1911, he became conductor of
Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company, the
Ballets Russes. In this capacity he conducted the premières of
Stravinsky's Petrushka (
1911) and
The Rite of Spring 1913 -- with its famous riot -- as well as Debussy's
Jeux (
1913) and
Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé (
1912). This established the course of his career, and for the rest of his life he was noted particularly for his interpretations of Russian and French music.
With the outbreak of
World War I, Monteux was called up for military service, but was discharged in
1916, and travelled to the United States. There he took charge of the French repertoire at the
Metropolitan Opera in
New York City from
1917 to
1919. He also conducted the American première of
Rimsky-Korsakov's opera
The Golden Cockerel at the Metropolitan Opera.
He then moved to the
Boston Symphony Orchestra (1919-1924). He had a major effect on the Boston ensemble's sound, and was able to fashion the orchestra as he pleased after a
strike led to thirty of its members leaving. He also introduced a number of new works in Boston, notably works by French composers.
In
1924, Monteux began an association with the
Concertgebouw Orchestra of
Amsterdam, serving as "first conductor" ("
eerste dirigent") alongside
Willem Mengelberg. In
1929, he founded the
Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, which he conducted until
1935. In the year the orchestra was founded, he conducted it in the world première of
Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 3.
Monteux then returned to the United States, and worked with the
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra from
1935 to
1952. He began recording with the orchestra for
RCA Victor in 1941 and made numerous discs in San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House for the next 11 years. In
1943, he founded a conducting school, The
Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestra Musicians, in
Hancock, Maine, the childhood home of his second wife, Doris Hodgkins Monteux, where Monteux was now living. There he taught such future conductors as
Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner, André Previn and
David Zinman. In
1946, he became a United States citizen. He made a nostalgic return to San Francisco in 1960 to guest conduct the orchestra and to record
Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and
Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration for RCA Victor, the only stereophonic recordings he made with his former orchestra.
From
1961 to
1964 he was principal conductor of the
London Symphony Orchestra. He was 86 when he was invited to take the post, and he famously accepted on condition that he had a 25-year contract, with a 25-year option of renewal. With the LSO Monteux gave the 50th anniversary performance of
The Rite of Spring, at the
Royal Albert Hall, London, in the presence of the composer. In his last studio sessions Monteux recorded a disc with the LSO and his son, the
flautist Claude Monteux, the only gramophone recording Pierre and Claude made together.
Pierre Monteux died in Hancock in
1964.
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