Print Shortlink

Paray, Paul (24th May 1886-10th October 1979)

He was a conductor, composer and organist born in Le Treport, France to a family where his father was a sculptor, leader of an amateur musical society and a church organist.

He started his musical career by playing drums in his father’s musical society orchestra and later he went to study music and organ with abbots in Rouen.  He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1911 and won the Grand Prix de Rome for Yanitza which was a cantata composition.

He joined the French Army at the start of WWI and in 1914 was made a prisoner of war and interred at a camp in Darmstadt .  While there he would compose a string quartet.

He became the music director of the Casino de Cauterets after the war which was followed by the Lamoureux Orchestra.  This, in turn, led him to being the music director of the Monte Carlo Orchestra and the Concerts Colonne.

His compositions began to gain recognition and they included two symphonies, the ballet Adonis trouble and Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc.

He went to America and debuted in 1939 with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra.  He joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1952 and stayed with them until 1963 after having done 70 recordings over a period of 11 years.  He is said to have built that orchestra into one of the “finest French orchestras in the world”.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra recordings
If I Were King (Adolphe Charles Adam)
Mercury 434 332-2 (CD – Marches and Overtures a la Francais)

Source:

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Paray
  2. https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Paray-Paul.htm
  3. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/paul-paray-mn0000570500/biography
  4. https://www.discogs.com/artist/843529-Paul-Paray
  5. https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Paray%2C_Paul