Pierre Benjamin Monteux was a French conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting engagements in 1907. He came to prominence when, for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company between 1911 and 1914, he conducted the world premieres of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and other prominent works including Petrushka, The Nightingale, Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, and Debussy's Jeux. Thereafter he directed orchestras around the world for more than half a century.
Monteux during his conductorship of Les Ballets Russes, c. 1912
The building which housed the Paris Conservatoire in Monteux's student days (21st century photograph)
Monteux as viola player in quartets (2nd from right), with Johannes Wolff, Joseph Hollmann and André Dulaurons, and with Gustave Lyon (Administrateur Délégué of Pleyel) at the rear and Edvard Grieg in front, Salle Pleyel, April 1903.
Saint-Saëns at the keyboard, with Monteux (right) on the rostrum, 1913
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. After its initial Paris season, the company had no formal ties there.
Poster by Jean Cocteau for the 1911 Ballet Russe season showing Nijinsky in costume for Le Spectre de la rose, Paris
Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Ballets Russes
Ballet Russes by August Macke, 1912
Image: Pavillion d'Armide by A. Benois 01