André Cluytens

André Cluytens (26 March 1905 - 3 June 1967) was a Belgian-born French conductor.

Career

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 Opéra-Comique where he conducted 40 works between 1947-1953.

He became a French citizen in 1940. In 1949, he replaced Charles Münch as principal conductor of the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, which post he held until 1960. His contract required him to conduct half of the orchestra's concerts each season. 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. Cluytens was well-versed in the German repertoire, and also noted for authoritative interpretations of Ravel and other modern French composers.

A prolific recording artist, 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 set down a discography of orchestral recordings of the French masters and a complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies, the latter with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, in 1957-1960. Most of his recordings have been re-issued on CD.

His premature death at the age of 62 occurred as he was transitioning from being known primarily as a conductor of the French classics to becoming increasingly recognized as an interpreter of the standard German/Austrian repertoire. During the mid 1950's he began conducting at the annual Bayreuth Festival, leading Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and other works. This was an remarkable honor at the time for a non-German conductor. Also during the late 1950s, EMI commissioned Cluytens to record all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, joining the cycles by Herbert von Karajan and Otto Klemperer in their catalog.

References

• Holomon, D. Kern. The Société des Concerts Du Conservatoire, 1828-1967. page 476-7.

External links

• Société des concerts du Conservatoire
• Biography at All Music.com