Editing Pierre Monteux (section)

===First conducting posts===
[[File:Saint-Saëns-Monteux-1913.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]] at the keyboard, with Monteux (right) on the rostrum, 1913]]
Monteux's first high-profile conducting experience came in 1895, when he was barely 20 years old. He was a member of the orchestra engaged for a performance of Saint-Saëns's [[oratorio]] ''La lyre et la harpe'', to be conducted by the composer. At the last minute Saint-Saëns judged the player engaged for the important and difficult organ part to be inadequate and, as a celebrated virtuoso organist, decided to play it himself. He asked the orchestra if any of them could take over as conductor; there was a chorus of "Oui – Monteux!". With great trepidation, Monteux conducted the orchestra and soloists including the composer, sight-reading the score, and was judged a success.<ref>Monteux (1965), p. 45</ref>

Monteux's musical career was interrupted in 1896, when he was called up for military service. As a graduate of the Conservatoire, one of France's ''grandes écoles'', he was required to serve only ten months rather than the three years generally required. He later described himself as "the most pitifully inadequate soldier that the 132nd Infantry had ever seen".<ref>Monteux (1965), p. 63</ref> He had inherited from his mother not only her musical talent but her short and portly build and was physically unsuited to soldiering.<ref>Canarina, pp. 20 and 26</ref>

Returning to Paris after discharge, Monteux resumed his career as a violist. [[Hans Richter (conductor)|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.<ref>"Unquenchable Mr. Monteux", ''The Times'', 4 May 1961, p. 16</ref> In December 1900 Monteux played the solo viola part in Berlioz's ''[[Harold en Italie|Harold in Italy]]'', rarely heard in Paris at the time, with the Colonne Orchestra conducted by [[Felix Mottl]].<ref>D'Udine, Jean. [https://archive.org/details/paraphrasesmusic00udin ''Paraphrases musicales sur les grand concerts du dimanche Colonne et Lamoureux 1900–1903.''] A Joanin et Cie, Paris, 1904, p. 68 (in French)</ref> In 1902 he secured a junior conducting post at the [[Dieppe, Seine-Maritime|Dieppe]] casino, a seasonal appointment for the summer months which brought him into contact with leading musicians from the Paris orchestras and well-known soloists on vacation.<ref name="MMSmith"/> By 1907 he was the principal conductor at Dieppe, in charge of operas and orchestral concerts.{{refn|group=n|The operas Monteux conducted at Dieppe included ''[[Aida]]'', ''[[La bohème]]'', ''[[Carmen]]'', ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]'', ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'', ''[[Manon]]'', ''[[Pagliacci]]'', ''[[Rigoletto]]'', ''[[Samson et Dalila]]'', ''[[Thaïs (opera)|Thaïs]]'', ''[[Tosca]]'' and ''[[La traviata]]''.<ref name=c29>Canarina, p. 29</ref>}} 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.{{refn|group=n|Canarina notes that among Monteux's contemporaries [[Fritz Reiner]] and [[Adrian Boult|Sir Adrian Boult]] were also profoundly influenced by Nikisch, and, like Monteux, were known for their unshowy podium personas.<ref name=c29/> Among the other guest conductors of the Concerts Colonne during Monteux's time with the orchestra were [[Gustav Mahler]], Hans Richter, [[Richard Strauss]] and [[Felix Weingartner]].<ref>Caullier, Joëlle. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/928738 "Les chefs d'orchestre allemands à Paris entre 1894 et 1914"], ''Revue de Musicologie'', T. 67, No. 2 (1981), pp. 191–210 {{subscription}} (in French)</ref>}}