The great French conductor Georges Prêtre would have been 100 years old today. I have to say, he had a pretty good run. He died on January 4, 2017, at the age of 92.
Prêtre studied under André Cluytens, among others, at the Paris Conservatory. He made his conducting debut in Marseilles in 1946. He was director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris from 1955-59. There, he gave the premiere of “La voix humaine” by Francis Poulenc, a composer with whom he would become closely associated. He went on to conduct at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and La Scala, Milan.
He was a regular at the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1959-71. He was music director of the Paris Opera for the 1970-71 season. He later became principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony, from 1986-91.
Prêtre was invited to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in its popular New Year’s Day concert twice, in 2008 and 2010. To date, he is the only French conductor to have done so.
Among his other notable achievements, he conducted the world premiere of Joseph Jongen’s “Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra,” with Virgil Fox and the Paris Opera Orchestra, in 1959.
I hope you find this as amusing as I do. Prêtre doesn’t waste a gesture when conducting this selection from Bizet’s “Carmen,” with Maria Callas.
Joseph Jongen, “Symphonie Concertante”
Florent Schmitt, “The Haunted Palace” (after Edgar Allan Poe)
Albert Roussel, “The Spider’s Banquet”
Accompanying Francis Poulenc and Jacques Février in Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos
New Year’s Concert in Vienna, 2010
Merci, Maestro! Fondly remembering you on the 100th anniversary of your birth.
PHOTO: Planting a smacker on La Divina
