André Cluytens
André Cluytens ( born March 26, 1905 in Antwerp, † June 3, 1967 in Neuilly -sur -Seine ) was a Belgian- French conductor.
Life and work
Cluytens visited already nine years old, the Flemish Conservatoire Royal in Antwerp, where he won a first prize in piano at age 16. After he won at the age of 17 years other prizes in harmony and composition, he was a choral conductor and accompanist at the Théâtre Royal Antwerp. In 1927 he was Principal Conductor.
Since 1932 Cluytens conducted mainly in France, at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Opéra National de Lyon and the Opéra Comique in Paris, where he was chief conductor from 1946 to 1953. 1945 Cluytens took French citizenship. His international career began in 1944 with his first conducting at the Paris Grand Opéra.
From 1949 to 1960 Cluytens was the successor of Charles Münch principal conductor of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire Paris. From 1958 until his death in 1967 Cluytens was also chief conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra. He has appeared in Vienna, at La Scala, in Berlin, in the U.S., Japan and Australia.
1955 Cluytens debuted as a conductor at the Bayreuth Festival with Tannhäuser. In the following years, he conducted also Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger of Nuremberg and Parsifal.
André Cluytens was primarily a specialist in French composers, and brought several world premieres, as Cantique de la Sagesse of Alexis Roland -Manuel (1891-1966), Trois danses ritual of André Jolivet, Le Carosse du Saint- Sacrement by Henri Busser, Trois Talas, Messiaen Bolivard by Darius Milhaud, as well as compositions by Henry Barraud (1900-1997) and Florent Schmitt.
Cluytens was also known by the complete recording of the Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic. He was guest conductor with many leading orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic. He was also a regular guest at the Vienna State Opera.