Prêtre studied initially at the Douai Conservatoire, before moving to Paris where he entered the Paris Conservatoire and took first prize for trumpet in 1944. He also studied harmony with Henri Challon and Maurice Duruflé before turning to the study of conducting, for which his teachers were André Cluytens, Pierre Dervaux and Richard Blareau. Having familiarised himself with the operatic repertoire by sitting through numerous performances in the orchestra pits of both the Paris Opera and Opéra-Comique, Paris, Prêtre spent his formative years as a conductor working in the provincial opera houses of France, where the French tradition of operatic and operetta performance was arguably stronger than in the capital. He made his début as a conductor in Marseilles in 1946 directing Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys, and subsequently worked at Lille (1948) and Casablanca (1949–1951), before spending four years at the Capitol in Toulouse from 1951 to 1955.

In 1956 Prêtre made his Paris début conducting the first performance in that city of Richard Strauss’s Capriccio at the Opéra-Comique; this was extremely successful and he was invited to become the Opéra-Comique’s chief conductor (1956–1959). The preferred conductor of Francis Poulenc, Prêtre conducted the first performances of his opera La voix humaine in 1959 (in Paris at the Opéra-Comique), and of the Gloria in 1961 (in Boston). He was a regular conductor at the Paris Opera from 1959 onwards, holding the post of chief conductor there between 1966 and 1971. By this time his international career was well under way: he made his American début at the Chicago Lyric Opera in 1959, followed by his first appearances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1961, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1964 and La Scala, Milan, with which he became particularly closely associated, in 1965. Immediately following the death of its founder Sir Thomas Beecham in 1961, Prêtre was associate conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra between 1962 and 1963, touring America with this orchestra during the latter year. Prêtre worked closely with the opera singer Maria Callas towards the end of her career: for EMI he recorded Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Tosca with Callas singing both the title roles, and in addition he conducted for her in the opera house and concert hall.

Prêtre remained active as an international guest conductor, appearing regularly with first-rank orchestras such as those of Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and Vienna, as well as with the principal orchestras of France. Between 1986 and 1991 he served as chief guest conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, of which he is an honorary conductor for life, and from 1996 as chief guest conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra; the German record company Hänssler has published a number of notable recordings of Prêtre conducting this orchestra. To mark the re-opening of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in 1988, Prêtre conducted a concert performance of Berlioz’s opera Benvenuto Cellini; and in 1990 he led the first concert to be given at the Bastille Opera House in Paris. He returned to the Opéra-Comique to conduct Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande in 1998, and in the same year toured Japan with the Orchestre de Paris. During the following year he conducted several concerts at both the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Opéra Garnier to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Francis Poulenc. He was made an Officier of the Légion d’honneur in 1984 and also an Italian Commendatore.

In both the opera house and concert hall, Prêtre’s interpretations were notable for their full-blooded and highly romantic character; in style they were often different from those of French conductors of the previous generation. He was an effective conductor not only of the French repertoire but also of the music of Italy and Germany, a fact reflected by the admiration in which he was held in both the latter countries. A highly experienced and polished recording artist, Prêtre had many years’ experience of working in the studio. His discography was large. Especially important were his recordings of the music of Poulenc: these included idiomatic accounts of the Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani, the Concert Champêtre, the Piano Concerto, the Concerto for Two Pianos, Aubade, and the opera La voix humaine, with Denise Duval as the central protagonist of this moving work; and the choral works Sécheresses, Sept répons de ténèbres, the Gloria and Stabat Mater. A video recording has been released of Prêtre in 1981 leading Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; this contains many shots of his dynamic style of conducting on the podium.

He died on 4 January 2017.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Conductors, Naxos 8.558087–90).

Richard Strauss enjoyed early success as both conductor and composer, in the second capacity influenced by the work of Wagner. He developed the symphonic poem (or tone poem) to an unrivalled level of expressiveness and after 1900 achieved great success with a series of impressive operas, at first on a grand scale but later tending to a more Classical restraint. His relationship with the National Socialist government in Germany was at times ambiguous, a fact that protected him but led to post-war difficulties and self-imposed exile in Switzerland, from which he returned home to Bavaria only in the year of his death, 1949.

Operas

Richard Strauss created an immediate sensation with his opera Salome, based on the play of that name by Oscar Wilde. Collaboration with Hugo von Hofmannsthal followed, resulting in the operas Elektra and the even more effective Der Rosenkavalier in 1911, followed by Ariadne auf Naxos. Der Rosenkavalier (‘The Knight of the Rose’) remains the best known of the operas of Richard Strauss, familiar from its famous concert waltz sequence. From Salome comes the orchestral ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’, which occurs at an important moment in the drama. The late opera Die Liebe der Danae (‘The Love of Danae’), completed in 1940, may also be known in part from orchestral excerpts. Other operas are Die Frau ohne Schatten (‘The Woman Without a Shadow’), Die ägiptische Helena, Arabella, Intermezzo, Daphne and finally, in 1941, Capriccio.

Orchestral Music

Symphonic Poems

In the decade from 1886 Strauss tackled a series of symphonic poems, starting with the relatively lighthearted Aus Italien (‘From Italy’) and going on to Don Juan, based on the poem by Lenau; the Shakespearean Macbeth; Tod und Verklärung (‘Death and Transfiguration’); Till Eulenspiegel, a study of a medieval prankster; Also sprach Zarathustra (‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’), based on Nietzsche; a series of ‘fantastic variations’ on the theme of Don Quixote; and Ein Heldenleben (‘A Hero’s Life’).

Concertos

Concertos by Strauss include two for the French horn, an instrument with which he was familiar from his father’s eminence as one of the leading players of his time. There is an early violin concerto, but it is the Oboe Concerto of 1945, revised in 1948, that has particularly impressed audiences.

Other Orchestral Works

Strauss wrote various other orchestral works, some derived from incidental music for the theatre, music for public occasions or his operas. The Symphonia domestica and An Alpine Symphony may rank among the symphonic poems, in view of their extra-musical content, while the poignant Metamorphosen for 23 strings, written in 1945, draws inspiration from Goethe in its lament for what has been lost.

Vocal Music

In common with other German composers, Strauss added significantly to the body of German Lieder. Most moving of all, redolent with a kind of autumnal nostalgia that is highly characteristic, are the Vier letzte Lieder (‘Four Last Songs’). He composed songs throughout his life, with a substantial body of such works written in adolescence.

Piano Music

Strauss’s piano music dates principally from his last years at school, illustrating both his precocity and his understanding of the instrument, which then became so apparent in his songs.