Pierre Monteux. A 150th Anniversary Tribute
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Images pour orchestra, CD 118 (1913)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Symphony of Psalms, KO52 (1931)
Interval feature: Alex Nifosi remembers Pierre Monteux
BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus / Pierre Monteux
rec. live, 18 October 1961, Royal Festival Hall, London
Latin texts & English translations included
SOMM Ariadne 5042 [63]
The 150th anniversary of the birth of the great French conductor, Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) seems largely to have passed by under the radar. Happily, SOMM Recordings have come to the rescue with this tribute disc which offer the opportunity to hear him conduct masterpieces by two composers with whose music he was particularly associated.
Monteux is renowned as the conductor who led the world premieres of, among many great works, Petrushka, Le Sacre du Printemps, Jeux and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. Not the least valuable aspect of Robert Matthew-Walker’s excellent booklet essay is that he reminds us of roles that Monteux played in the premieres of other works. So, for example, as principal viola of the Colonne Orchestra, he played in the first performance of The Firebird. Even more relevantly, he led the rehearsals for the premiere of Petrushka and his work so impressed Stravinsky that he insisted that Monteux should conduct the premiere. It was Debussy who conducted the first performance of Images pour orchestre but at the composer’s request, it was Monteux who prepared the orchestra in the rehearsals leading up to the premiere. As an orchestral violist – and one who played in string quartets too – Monteux garnered invaluable practical experience in the inner workings of music long before he became a conductor.
Both of the performances included here come from the same BBC Symphony Orchestra concert in October 1961. By the time of this concert Monteux was 86 years old, not that you’d know it from listening. The Debussy performance in particular is distinguished by well-sprung, clear rhythms. From the start of ‘Gigues’, the first movement of Images, I noticed how immediate the recorded sound is. This means that you can hear lots of detail in the performance. You can also tell that Monteux’s performance is full of life. In the less vigorous, more impressionistic passages this conductor’s mastery of texture is very evident. I enjoyed ‘Ibéria’ very much indeed. The first panel, ‘Par les rues et par les chemins’ oozes Spanish ambience. In ‘Les parfums de la nuit’ Monteux and the orchestra convey poetic atmosphere. It’s true that hereabouts the immediacy of the recorded sound means that we don’t perhaps experience the music with an impressionistic haze; the sound is rather too close for that. However, I don’t believe that matters in the face of such persuasive conducting. The final element of ‘Ibéria’ is ‘Le matin d’un jour de fête’; here, the music-making has an infectious gaiety. The concluding movement of Images is ‘Rondes de printemps’; this is another conspicuous success. Robert Matthew-Walker justly observes that ‘[e]very bar is texturally clear and detailed’. I think he’s speaking of Debussy’s orchestration but the judgement is equally valid when applied to Monteux’s performance. Everything about this account of ‘Rondes de printemps’ just seems right; it’s a fine conclusion to an excellent performance of Images.
I’m not sure that the account of Symphony of Psalms is quite so satisfying. There are two reasons for that, neither of which is anything to do with Monteux’s conducting. One is the singing of the BBC Symphony Chorus. They’re committed and accurate. However, choral standards have risen significantly over the last six decades and to my ears these singers, the sopranos in particular, have a bit too much vibrato. In addition, the choir seems large. This was probably the right thing to do in the context of the Royal Festival Hall. However, the microphone placing allied to the size of the choir means that the balance significantly favours the singers and the orchestra can’t be heard as clearly as was the case in the Debussy.
All that said, Monteux’s interpretation of the work is well worth hearing. He conducts the first movement (verses from Psalm 38) purposefully. At the start of the second movement, which uses verses from Psalm 39, the sinuous woodwind lines are all clearly delineated, though once the choir sings the instrumentalists are often submerged. Monteux invests the music with no little tension, though the movement’s climax is a bit heavy and the sound in those bars is somewhat congested. Finally, Stravinsky sets Psalm 150. In the slow introduction (to 1:51), the performance establishes a good sense of suspense. The slightly quicker music which follows is measured but by no means lacking in energy. Hereabouts, the nature of Stravinsky’s instrumental writing means that the players achieve good cut-through. The last five or six minutes of the movement are very well done; Monteux ensures that the solemnity of Stravinsky’s music is properly realised.
In his essay, Robert Matthew-Walker says this: ‘If anyone knew first-hand the full range of both Debussy’s and Stravinsky’s intentions it was Pierre Monteux, and the performances here captured…demonstrate musical understanding at its most profound.’ I think that’s a very fair judgement.
As a bonus, we hear a short talk (9:23) in which Alex Nifosi remembers Pierre Monteux. Though it’s listed as ‘Interval feature’, it clearly can’t have been broadcast during the interval of the 1961 performances because Nifosi refers to Monteux’s death in 1964 and I also infer from one or two comments he makes about the performance of Images that he played in the 1961 concert; I understand he was a cellist. It’s a shame that in SOMM’s otherwise excellent documentation we’re told nothing about Nifosi or the context of his recollections but Lani Spahr has confirmed to me that Nifosi’s talk was broadcast when the BBC aired a repeat of the 1961 concert. Nifosi’s reminiscences are well worth hearing. He speaks of ‘Le Maître’ with respect and affection and he remembers Monteux’s “exemplary” attitude towards orchestral musicians; of course, Monteux knew from personal experience what it was like to be on the receiving end of the baton. He also remembers Monteux’s performances as “always elegant”. Anecdotes about the great French conductor are legion, of course; one I hadn’t heard, and which amused me, concerned his long association with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Apparently, it was Monteux’s habit to arrive 45 minutes early for their rehearsals; this led the orchestra to give him the affectionate nickname ‘The Night Watch’. Arguably, the most telling comment that Nifosi makes is when he describes Monteux as ‘perhaps the perfect example of the complete musician: he did everything, and he did everything well’. That’s a gracious tribute to one of the finest conductors of his age.
I’ve expressed one or two reservations concerning the sound quality in the recording of Symphony of Psalms. I should stress, though, that these are prompted only by the excellent quality of the sound in Images. I can only presume that the difference between the two was occasioned by the BBC engineers using a different microphone array to capture the chorus as well as the orchestra. These reservations are in no way to be taken as a reflection on the restoration work undertaken by Lani Spahr who, as usual, has done a fine job in ensuring that we can hear these performances to best advantage more than six decades after the concert took place. And the performances in question are well worth hearing because they evidence a sprightly, thoroughly musical conductor directing music in which he always excelled. It is good to be reminded, 150 years after the birth of Pierre Monteux, that, as the saying goes, ‘they don’t make ‘em like that anymore’.
John Quinn
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