Subscribing works wonders: Become a Patron!
Another historic performance this weekend – André Cluytens leads the Orchestre National de Radio France in a performance of Liszt’s Orpheus from a radio studio recording on September 28, 1953.
Having made his debut with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra on 20 December 1942, André Cluytens succeeded Charles Munch in 1949 as principal conductor, which post he held until 1960. His contract required him to conduct half of the orchestra’s concerts each season; he also led them on foreign tours. André Cluytens was due to conduct the first concert to be given by Alfred Cortot in Paris after his disgrace for Vichy activities, in 1947; in the event the concerto was dropped and Cluytens refused to acknowledge Cortot as he and the orchestra left the stage for Cortot to play solo. Cluytens conducted the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra in a Beethoven symphony cycle and then on its tour of Japan in 1964, continuing on his own to conduct the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, South Australian Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Victorian Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Symphony Orchestra into July that year.
He led a famous performance of Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival on 23 July 1955, being the first conductor of French nationality to conduct at Bayreuth (and only the third non-German to conduct there, after Toscanini and de Sabata). His other work at Bayreuth up to 1965 consisted of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1956, 1957, 1958), Parsifal (1957, 1965) and Lohengrin (1958), returning for Tannhäuser in 1965. According to Wolfgang Wagner, Cluytens was “universally liked for his amiable, open-minded attitude”; Hans Knappertsbusch was delighted when Cluytens requested that the older conductor introduce him to Parsifal.
He was to introduce Régine Crespin to Wieland Wagner, which led to her engagements at Bayreuth from 1958. Having conducted a Ring cycle in Lyon in 1959, Cluytens conducted three cycles at La Scala, Milan in 1963 (with Birgit Nilsson and Hans Hotter).
André Cluytens made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1948, and later toured the UK, the US and Canada with the orchestra in 1956. He also worked with the Berlin Philharmonic as a guest conductor, making the very first recording of the complete Beethoven symphonies with that orchestra. Cluytens was well-versed in the German repertoire, and was also noted for authoritative interpretations of Ravel and other modern French composers.
From 1964 André Cluytens had a close relationship with Anja Silja, whom he had met in Bayreuth and first conducted in Salome at the Paris Opera. His death at the age of 62 occurred coincident with his reputation emerging not just primarily as a conductor of the French classics, but as an interpreter of the standard German/Austrian repertoire.
Cluytens died in 1967 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. The German soprano Anja Silja bought his former home in Paris and has resided there ever since.
A prolific recording artist, André Cluytens signed a contract with the French branch of EMI Pathé-Marconi in 1946. He recorded an extensive series of complete French operas with the forces of the Opéra-Comique and the Opéra National de Paris. He also recorded a wide range of orchestral works by the French masters, two traversals of the orchestral works of Ravel, and a complete cycle of Beethoven’s nine symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1957–1960. Many of his records, and some live performances, have since been re-issued on CD, while film of him conducting Ravel and Tchaikovsky (with Emil Gilels) have been presented on DVD. He may be seen during the overture of the film Le Barbier de Séville.
Enjoy.
