Jean Martinon

Jean Francisque-Étienne Martinon (usually known simply as Jean Martinon (10 January 1910 – 1 March 1976) was a French conductor and composer. Martinon was born in Lyon, where he began his education, going on to the Conservatoire de Paris to study under Albert Roussel for composition, under Charles Munch and Roger Désormière for conducting, under Vincent d'Indy for harmony, and under Jules Boucherit for violin. He served in the French army during World War II, and was taken prisoner in 1940, composing works such as Chant des captifs while incarcerated. Among his other compositions are four symphonies, four concertos, additional choral works and chamber music. After the war, Martinon was appointed conductor of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire of Paris, and, in 1946, of the Bordeaux Philharmonic Orchestra. On Martinon’s first visit to Dublin in March 1946, his interpretation of Debussy’s La Mer (the Irish premiere of the work) was described as ‘a musical event of real importance’. The success of that first concert led Radio Éireann (the Irish public broadcasting service) to engage him in the following year to assist in the selection of musicians and the general organisation of the newly constituted Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra. While in Dublin Martinon encouraged the development of Our Lady’s Choral Society, he conducted that choir in several important events with the radio orchestra, and he gave master classes in orchestral conducting and in composition in the Summer School of Music. Other orchestras with which he was associated were the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as music director from 1963 to 1968; the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the French National Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Concerts Lamoureux and Het Residentie Orkest in The Hague. Martinon's repertoire focused on the works of early twentieth century French and Russian composers. The premieres of his violin- and cello-concerti were given by Henryk Szeryng and Pierre Fournier respectively. He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. Martinon was diagnosed with bone cancer, not long after he guest conducted the San Francisco Symphony in their first complete performances of Deryck Cooke's completion of Gustav Mahler's tenth symphony. He died in Paris.