André Cluytens
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André Cluytens (March 26, 1905 - June 3, 1967) was a Belgian-born French conductor.
He was born in Antwerp to a musical family. At age nineteen he graduated from the Royal Flemish Conservatory with first prizes in piano, harmony, counterpoint, and fugue. His father Alphonse was conductor of the Antwerp Opera (the Theatre Royal), and he engaged his son as chorusmaster and coach. He succeeded his father at the opera, conducting productions there in 1927 with his debut being Les Pêcheurs de Perles. In 1932, he became the conductor at the Théâtre du Capitole of Toulouse, conducting primarily the orchestra concerts. In 1935 he was first conductor of the Opéra National de Lyon where he became the musical director in 1942. During World War II he led the Vichy summer concerts which may have led to his short-term blacklisting by the musicians’ union at Bordeaux. In 1947, he became the musical director at the Opera Comique where he conducted 40 works between 1947-1953.
He became a French citizen in 1948. In 1949, he replaced Charles Münch when he was appointed principal conductor of the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, a position he held until 1960. His contract required him to conduct half of the concerts. He conducted a famous performance of Wagner's opera Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival in 1955 and also worked with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as a guest conductor. As this indicates, Cluytens was well-versed in the German repertoire, as well as delivering authoritative interpretations of Ravel and other modern French composers.
A prolific recording artist, primarily for EMI, Cluytens signed a contract with the French branch of EMI Pathé-Marconi in 1946. He set down a discography of the French masters and a complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies, the latter with the Berlin Phiharmonic Orchestra, in 1957-1960. He also recorded many operas. A number of his recordings have been issued on CD.
His premature death at the age of 62 occurred just as he was transitioning from being known primarily as a conductor of the French classics to becoming increasingly recognized as one of the greatest conductors of the standard German/Austrian repertoire. He started during the mid 1950's to conduct Meistersinger and other famous Wagner operas at the annual Bayreuth Festivals, an extraordinary honor at that time, for a conductor who didn't come from Germany or Austria, to lead Wagner at the world's Wagner epicenter, the Holy Grail for all German and Austrian conductors. Also during the late '50's, the dominant impresario of classical-music recording, Walter Legge of EMI, commissioned Cluytens to record all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic. This was a special mark of Cluytens's rising reputation in the Germanic repertoire, because that orchestra was widely considered, along with the Vienna Philharmonic, to be one of the two finest in the world, especially in performing the Austro/German literatures. Legge, at that same time, commissioned complete Beethoven symphony recordings from Herbert von Karajan, and also from Otto Klemperer, both of whom were already widely acclaimed Austro-German maestros, and both of whom recorded the nine Beethoven symphonies with the Philharmonia of London. For Legge to place Cluytens in the same august Beethoven sphere as Klemperer and Karajan, and to give Cluytens the Berlin Philharmonic no less to do it, expressed EMI's absolute commitment that Cluytens was unsurpassed on Beethoven. All three of these sets were classic performances of these classic masterpieces, and have been reissued many times. What marks the Cluytens set apart from both others is its consistency, and the high extent to which it projects the distinctive optimistic and heroic but also sometimes somber character of Beethoven. The Cluytens Beethoven 9th has been especially frequently reissued, because of its utter lack of straining as it soars straight into the sky and above the clouds heading for the blazing sun of Beethoven's distinctive humanism. The sound which Cluytens drew from the Berlin Philharmonic reflected the pre-Karajan Berlin Philharmonic, and thus was quite different from the orchestra we know today. Before Karajan took over this orchestra in 1956, it had a rich and sonorous tone, not the sleek, efficient, and hard sound, which Karajan cultivated in it. The Cluytens set of the nine Beethoven symphonies might thus be considered the culmination of a tradition of Beethoven performance prior to the modern era, a sound and style so deep that if you look down into it you see the heart of the music, and you experience an age which no longer exists except to the extent that it's archived in this Cluytens Beethoven set and in a few other exalted recordings.
| Preceded by Charles Münch |
Principal Conductor, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire which later became Orchestre de Paris 1946–1960 |
Succeeded by none |
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Holomon, D. Kern. The Societ́e ́des Concerts Du Conservatoire, 1828-1967. page 476-7.
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