 | No. 398 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages is this week's Friday Blog and Podcast. It can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast398 |
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This week's Blog and Podcast picks up on a thread we started
as part of Project 366 – montages featuring conductors who have more than one
string up their bow. In this case, conductor and composer Jean Martinon.
Martinon entered the conservatory of Lyon, his hometown, at
the age of thirteen. Three years later, he will leave to enter the National
Conservatory in Paris. There he worked on the violin, composition (with Albert
Roussel and Vincent d'Indy), and conducting (with Roger Désormière and Charles
Munch). Quite the apprenticeship!
Working mainly as a violinist after his studies, he had the
misfortune of being a prisoner of war for two years, interned in a stalag,
where he composed several works for soloists, small ensembles and for choir.
It was after the war that Martinon took to the podium: first
conductor of the Dublin Radio Symphony Orchestra (1947-1950), Colonne,
Pasdeloup, and the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (later the Orchestre
de Paris) as substitute for Charles Munch.
From 1946 to 1948 he was associate conductor of the London
Philharmonic Orchestra; it is with this orchestra that we find him as the
curtain raiser of our montage, with three French operatic overtures from the
19th century.
From 1951 to 1958, he was president and conductor of the
Concerts Lamoureux in Paris, then artistic director of the Israel Philharmonic
Orchestra (1957-1959). In 1959, he was appointed to the post of general
director of music in Düsseldorf (a prestigious post occupied in the 19th
century by Schumann and Mendelssohn). His career then took him to the United
States where, in 1963, he became musical director of the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra. Back in Paris, he became director of the National Orchestra of the
ORTF, a position he held for six years. We find him with them on the montage
for Bizet's bohemian dances.
Despite a busy schedule, he finds time to compose throughout
his career. As an example, I have chosen one of his string quartets dating from
1966.
I think you will love this music too
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