It’s the 150th anniversary of Pierre Monteux (1875-1964), and this celebration presents a performance from London’s Festival Hall in 1961 of works by Debussy and Sravinsky, as broadcast on what was then the BBC Home Service. Remastering by Lani Spahr is amazing; thee is so much detail (which both pieces, of course, require).
It was Debussy himself who chose Pierre Monteux to prepare the world premiere of Images pour orchestre, which Debussy himself conducted in January 1913.
This is stunning Debussy. The orchestral Images hav a certain place in record history, too, as the LSO/Previn’s EMI recording was one of the very first digitally released LPs (I remember buying it from Gibbs Bookshop in Manchester and being enthralled). Monteux’s knowledge of Debussy’s score,,of its warp and weft, is if anything even greater than Previn’s; and the music sounds so fresh (as well it might). Spahr’s remastering allows for climaxes to emerge beautifully un-distorted:
I find Monteux’s tempo here a little more convincing than on his more languorous famous LSO recording:
It is interesting to hear Previn again, positively bathing in Debussy’s washes of sound; after either of the Monteux recordings above, he sounds decidedly sleepy:
We should not forget Monteux’s San Francisco recording; t’s fascinating, more steely in tone, with subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in emphasis to Debussy’s orchestration (at the beginning, the trumpet is more obvious, for example, which shifts the colour of the sonority significantly; and at the, again trumpet-led, passage a round 1″50, has Debussy ever sounded quite so close to Stravinsky?). This was originally on RCA Victor (LM 1197) and is reissued via Sony, but rather nicely the re-release reproduces the original, wonderful cover:
The tripartite core of Images is “Ibéria”. It is worth remembering Manuel de Falla’s comments on this:
There is more real Spain in ‘Ibéria’ than in all of Albéniz’s work.
Poor Albéniz; but Monteux does capture the snap of the rhythms of “Par les rues et par les chemins”
in this BBC Symphony Orchestra performance. The detail is fantastic; while the melody carries characteristic Spansh tiger, listn to the vibrancy of the rhyhmic accompaniment. Th BBC high strings have a discipline and a tone that has come and gone during orchestras history (at least in my experience) but was certainly there in 1961:
The strength of this 1961 “Les perfums de la nuit” is the super mix of atmosphere and movement. hte music is all the more effective for a non-lingering policy. There is so much to be learnt from Monteux’s Debussy:
Arguably the San Francisco recording tends more towards an acidic, objectivist approach hat tips too much in one direction:
The last panel of the second movememt is a miracle in this BBC performance, Debussy’s proto-modernism writ large; and the guitar imitation followed by outrageous clarinet is to die for. Small wonder Pierre Boulez adored Debussy! And is that a hint of Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale in the solo string writing? The coming out of the music into the sunshine is a riot here, a true fiesta:
The detail in this performance, particularly in the woodwinds, is remarkable. Shan’s audio restoration enables the strings to retain some body, too..
The “Rondes de printemps” is a thrilling crescendo, so full of detail here and yet seemingly impetuous. Again, teh detail we can hear is remarkable; but so is the growing tightness of the overall orchestral timbre:
Somm gives great background to Monteux’s Stravinsky:
Monteux’s first conducting position was with Paris’s Colonne Orchestra, which Sergei Diaghilev engaged for the 1910 season of the Ballets Russes. Monteux came into contact with Stravinsky’s music when he played viola in the company’s premiere of The Firebird. At the request of Stravinsky, he conducted the premiere of Petrushka in 1911, and he led the famously riotous first performance of The Rite of Spring in 1913.
When Monteux was conscripted into the army during World War I, Diaghilev persuaded the French government to discharge him so that he could direct the Ballets Russes on a North American tour. The success of this tour led to Monteux’s five-year tenure as chief conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His successor there was the Russian maestro Serge Koussevitzky who, in 1931, commissioned a number of leading composers—including Stravinsky—to write commemorative works marking the 50th anniversary of the BSO. Stravinsky’s offering was his Symphony of Psalms for chorus and orchestra. Composed in a Neo-classical style with a nod to Bach’s oratorios, it is one of the great choral works of the 20th century, creating a unique, ritualistic atmosphere in the setting of three psalm texts in Latin.
The recording of Symphony of Psalms is more distanced than the Debussy, and so less detail comes through. The ritualistic element of Stravinsky’s score comes though strongly, though. Alas the words towards the end of the first movement (‘non ero’) are difficult to ascertain,, but I do like Monteux’s brisk tempo for the fugal writing of the second movement (“Expectans expectavi Dominum”).
That said, that sense of distancing (and, in this incarnation, ruffling) is more pronounced in the BBC’s own transfer in there BBC Legends seres (click here for the adagio stream); Shani has clearly doen a fine job with the materials at hand.
It is the return to ritualism and the the amazing outbreak of rhythm and disjunct melody, and the ensuing return to formal constraints, that characterises the finale (“Alleluia Laudate Dominum”). I wonder if certain passages are not a touch careful here, as if the BBC players were still feeling their way a bit. The syncopations at “Laudate Dominum” are fabulous though, the the passage just after feels restrained. the final passages, though, are extraordinary, the concentration fierce:
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These live recordings are supplemented with a Pierre Monteux tribute from violinist Alex Nifosi, who refers to Monteux as “the complete musician: he did everything, and he did everything well”. At 14, Monteux played in the orchestra of the follies bergères; he was a viola player of note. Memories of how well-loved Monteux was are related; he was a bon viveur and fully enjoyed life, apparently. Monteux’s way with orchestral players was famous; always affable.
Obviously the Rite premiere comes up; but so does Monteux’s relationship with Stravinsky’s music, and Debussy’s. And Monteux’s chess, including Boston and Concertgebouw (shared with Mengelberg), and the LSO. In 1964 in Rome, he had a fall from the rostrum, but completed the concert. Some time later his health failed, and he died aged 89.
Released in Somm’s Ariadne series, this is an invlauable release, dripping in historical significance.
The disc can be purchased from Amazon here.
