Monteux in Europe: Twentieth-Century Repertoire

The remaining discs in the 24-CD box set of the complete recordings of Pierre Monteux in Europe released on the Decca label cover the twentieth-century repertoire. (There is also a “bonus disc” of rehearsal sessions for both Ludwig van Beethoven and Maurice Ravel, as well as “La Marseillaise;” but those tracks do not necessarily cultivate informed listening.) As a conductor Monteux was a major figure in presenting the music of his own time. This was due, in no small part, to his aforementioned connection with the Ballets Russes, including the notorious premiere performance of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”

As has already been observed, Monteux worked closely with Stravinsky to finalize the score and parts that would be used for “The Rite of Spring.” He also conducted Stravinsky’s score for the “Petrushka” ballet. Recordings of both of these compositions are included in the Decca box, along with a performance of the 1919 suite compiled from the score for Stravinsky’s first Ballets Russes project, “The Firebird.” All three of these Stravinsky selections are performed by orchestra of the Conservatoire de Paris, known as the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire until it was dissolved in 1967, to be replaced by the Orchestre de Paris.

1922 photograph of Ida Rubinstein, who figured significantly in many of the twentieth-century compositions that Monteux conducted (photographer unknown, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

The “Ballets Russes connection” can also be found in this collection in a recording of Maurice Ravel’s score for the ballet “Daphnis et Chloé,” as well as the complete ballet score for Ravel’s “Ma mère l’Oye” (Mother Goose). This latter was an orchestrated expansion of a five-movement suite for four hands on one keyboard that Ravel had composed with the same title. Then, of course, there is “Bolero,” which was composed for the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein, and “La Valse,” which Ravel called a “choreographic poem for orchestra,” even though Ballets Russes director Serge Diaghilev called it a “portrait of a ballet” and felt that it could not be produced. Nevertheless, it was later set to choreography by both Rubinstein and Bronislava Nijinska; and in the Fifties it was choreographed by both George Balanchine and Frederic Ashton.

All of this overlooks my own first contact with Monteux through a vinyl recording. While studying orchestration, I followed my professor’s advice by becoming better acquainted with the three pieces that Claude Debussy collected under the title Images pour orchestre. (We spent a lot of time in the classroom with the second of these pieces, “Ibéria.”) I bought the Philips Records album of Monteux conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, which also included Debussy’s four symphonic fragments from another Rubinstein project, the five-act musical mystery play Le Martyre de saint Sébastien (the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian). I spent many hours internalizing all of the details on this album, and encountering it on CD after all those ensuing decades turned out to be a real treat.

Only one CD in this collection departs from all of this “Parisian action” in the history of twentieth-century music. That CD couples Jean Sibelius’ Opus 43 (second) symphony in D minor with Edward Elgar’s Opus 36 set of variations, which he called “Enigma.” There is no doubt that Monteux interprets both of these pieces with the same clear vision and sure hand that he brought to the many innovations of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky. Mind you, I shall continue to treasure my recording of Elgar himself conducting his Opus 36. Nevertheless, there is never a “single, correct interpretation” of any piece of music worth its salt. Monteux’ interpretations always “honor the text;” but they also establish consistently engaging points of view.