Page "Pierre Monteux" Paragraph 14

Returning to Paris after discharge, Monteux resumed his career as a violist.

Hans Richter invited him to lead the violas in the Bayreuth Festival orchestra, but Monteux could not afford to leave his regular work in Paris.

In December 1900 Monteux played the solo viola part in Berlioz's Harold in Italy, rarely heard in Paris at the time, with the Colonne Orchestra conducted by Felix Mottl.

In 1902 he secured a junior conducting post at the Dieppe casino, a seasonal post in the summer months but where he had some of the best musicians from the Paris orchestras as well as famous soloists on vacation.

By 1907 he was the principal conductor.

At Dieppe he had the chance to conduct operas and orchestral concerts.

As an orchestral conductor he modelled his technique on that of Arthur Nikisch, under whose baton he had played, and who was his ideal conductor.

For some time his marriage had been under strain, exacerbated by his wife's frequent absences on concert tours.

They were divorced in 1909, and Monteux married one of her former pupils, Germaine Benedictus, the following year.