Listen to a LIVE concert with PAUL PARAY conducting. Schumann:Rhenish Sym., Chabrier :Espana and more, including a work never commercially recorded by Maestro Paray. You can also read his biography and view his photo (below) while you listen.

 

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Paul Paray was born on May 24, 1886 in Le Triport. His father was a sculptor working in ivory who, during the summer season, conducted an orchestra and who introduced his son to the great choral works by: Gabrreli, Palestrina, Schutz, Vittoria, Berliaz (I'Enfance du Christ), and Mendelssohn (Eliiah), and to the numerous cantatas written by Johann Sebastian Bach.

At the age of five, he began playing the drum, and soon went on to the piano. Each evening, he could be found in the Eglise Saint-Jacques at the keyboard of the Aristide Cavailli-Coll organ. At the age of ten, he was learning by heart virtually all of Bach's music for the organ, and the great works of Max Reger, Louis Vierne and Charles-Marie Widor.

Then he entered the "Maitrise" program at the Cathedral of Rouen where he perfected his musical education and became the friend of Marcel Dupre, three weeks older than he.

He composed pieces for the piano and several Magnifcats which are still sung today at the Cathedral of Rouen.

He became the protige of Henri Dallier, organist at the Madeleine in Paris, who helped him get into the Paris Conservatory in the class of Xavier Leroux and Georges Caussade. He was awarded the "Premier Prix" for harmony and for counterpoint. He played the piano, organ, cello and timpani.

In 1911, he competed for the "Grand Prix de Rome": he obtained the "Premier Grand Prix" for his cantata, Yanitza. The jury included Camille Saint-Saens, Gabriel Pierne, Charles-Marie Widor and Gabriel Faure, all of whom held him in great esteem. Scarcely had he returned from the Villa Medicis when he was called to join his regiment in 1914. He was taken prisoner and sent for several years' internment in the camp at Darmstadt, where he composed his Quatuor a cordes, also known as the Symphonie d'Archets.

After being liberated, he conducted for the first time at the Casino at Cauterets. He then, in 1919, became the Assistant Conductor of the "Orchestre Lamoureux" upon the recommendation of Gabriel Pierne. On October 17, 1920, he became Chief Conductor.

Many young soloists would owe their debut before a Parisian audience to him, among them Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein and Yehudi Menuhin. His concerts regularly featured the works of Ernest Chausson, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Faure, Jacques Ibert, Gabriel Pierne, Maurice Ravel and Florent Schmitt.

In 1927, he left for Rumania. The following year, he was offered the post of Music Director at Monte-Carlo, and his acceptance ushered in several years of incessant driving between Paris and Monte-Carlo.

He then agreed to take on the position of the conductor at the Paris Opera, then under the direction of Jacques Rouche. He conducted thirty performances of Siegfried, and Tristan and Isolde, among other works.

In 1934, he went to Denmark and then travelled all throughout Europe. In 1939 he attended the World Fair in New York as the official representative of France. The concert at which he directed the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was so impressive that the post of co-conductor of the N. B. C. Symphony Orchestra was offered to him then and there. With the outbreak of war Paul Paray elected to return to France. He directed the orchestra created by merging the Colonne and Lamoureux orchestras and then the "Orchestre National" which had taken refuge in Limoges. In the course of the following years, he made use of his power and influence to have a very significant number of instrumentalists directly threatened by the Nazis brought into the "free zone".

In 1947, Paul Paray conducted in Vienna before returning to the United States where he conducted the best-known orchestras.

In 1950, he took over the direction of the Montevideo Orchestra, although it was at the head of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra that he finally won international recognition, in the wake of the recordings made by Mercury.

At the end of a year of working intensely with his musicians, he invited Leopold Stokowski to come and conduct his orchestra. After the concert on November 20, 1952, the guest conductor told the press that it was "one af the greatest orchestras in the world".

The concerts conducted by Paul Paray featured a number of contemporary works bearing signatures such as: Adaskin, Barber, Bernstein, Cohn, Copland, Cowell, Creston, Flanagan, Giannini, Hanson, MacDowell, Piston, Reger, Rorem, Shapero, Vaughan Williams, Walton, and so forth.

In 1950, he conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, on a tour of the United States. In 1955, he directed the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Scandinavia, France, Italy, England, Switzerland and Holland. He conducted many other orchestras as well.

Paul Paray began recording his first stereophonic records in November of 1955, and the next year he inaugurated the Henry and Edsel Ford Auditorium.

He was called on to make increasing numbers of tours, and his records became ``best-sellers".

He frequently conducted, in France and in West Germany, the "Orchestre Nahonal", the "Orchestre Philharrnonique de l'O.R.TF.", the "Orchestre de Paris" (on tour in the U.S.S.R.) and the "Orchestre de l'Opera de Monte-Carlo" (in 1966 dunng a 43-concert tour throughout the United States and Canada in celebration of his 80th birthday).

After 1963, he connnued to make appearances all over the world as a guest conductor. When he was over 90 he went several times to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and appeared regularly in Israel to conduct the same program twelve consecutive times.

He died in October, 1979, while he was making ready to conduct the "Orchestre de Monte-Carlo" and the 'Orchestre de Paris", and still had plans to record works by Tchaikovsky with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

His legacy as a composer includes thirty melodies, pieces for the piano, sonatas, a fantasia for piano and orchestra, two cantatas, an oratorio, a mass, a ballet and three symphonies.

 

Jean-Philippe Mousnier

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To view historic Paul Paray Mercury Covers (click here)

To view other historic Paul Paray Album covers (click here)

To view photos of Paray conducting (click here)