Charles Dutoit |

Charles Dutoit

One of the most famous and sought-after masters of the conductor’s art of the second half of the 7th – early 1936st centuries, Charles Duthoit was born on October XNUMX, XNUMX in Lausanne. He received a versatile musical education at the conservatories and music academies of Geneva, Siena, Venice and Boston: he studied piano, violin, viola, percussion, studied music history and composition. He began training in conducting in Lausanne. One of his teachers is maestro Charles Munch. With another great conductor, Ernst Ansermet, the young Duthoit was personally acquainted and visited his rehearsals. An excellent school for him was also the work in the youth orchestra of the Lucerne Festival under the direction of Herbert von Karajan.

After graduating with honors from the Geneva Conservatory (1957), Ch. Duthoit played the viola in a number of symphony orchestras for two years and toured Europe and South America. Since 1959, he has performed as a guest conductor with various orchestras in Switzerland: the Radio Orchestra of Lausanne, the Orchestra of Romande Switzerland, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Zurich Radio Orchestra. In 1967 he was appointed artistic director and chief conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra (he held this position until 1977).

Since the 1960s, Dutoit has been working with the world’s leading symphony orchestras. In parallel with his work in Bern, he directed the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico (1973 – 1975) and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden (1976 – 1979). In the early 1980s Principal Guest Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. For 25 years (from 1977 to 2002) Ch. Duthoit was the artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and this creative alliance has been recognized throughout the world. He significantly expanded the repertoire and strengthened the reputation of the orchestra, made many recordings for the Decca label.

In 1980, Ch. Duthoit made his debut with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and has been its principal conductor since 2007 (he was also artistic director in 2008-2010). In the 2010-2011 season orchestra and maestro celebrated 30 years of cooperation. From 1990 to 2010 Duthoit was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Summer Festival at the Center for the Performing Arts in Saratoga, New York. In 1990 – 1999 Musical director of the summer concerts of the orchestra at the Center for the Performing Arts. Frederick Mann. It is known that in the 2012-2013 season the orchestra will honor Ch. Duthoit with the title of “Laureate Conductor”.

From 1991 to 2001 Duthoit was musical director of the Orchester National de France, with whom he toured on all five continents. In 1996 he was appointed music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, with whom he gave concerts in Europe, the USA, China, and Southeast Asia. Now he is the honorary musical director of this orchestra.

Since 2009, Ch. Duthoit has also been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He constantly collaborates with such orchestras as the Chicago and Boston Symphony, the Berlin and Israel Philharmonic, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

Charles Duthoit is the artistic director of music festivals in Japan: in Sapporo (Pacific Music Festival) and Miyazaki (International Music Festival), and in 2005 he founded the Summer International Music Academy in Guangzhou (China) and is also its director. In 2009 he became musical director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra.

In the late 1950s, at the invitation of Herbert von Karajan, Duthoit made his debut as an opera conductor at the Vienna State Opera. Since then, he has occasionally conducted on the best stages in the world: London’s Covent Garden, the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Charles Dutoit is known as an outstanding interpreter of Russian and French music, as well as the music of the XNUMXth century. His work is distinguished by thoroughness, accuracy and increased attention to the individual style of the author of the music he performs and the characteristics of his era. The conductor himself in one of the interviews explained it this way: “We care a lot about sound quality. Many bands are cultivating the “international” sound. I’m looking for the sound of the music that we play, but not the sound for a particular orchestra. You can’t play Berlioz like, say, Beethoven or Wagner.”

Charles Dutoit is the owner of many honorary titles and awards. In 1991, he became an honorary citizen of Philadelphia. In 1995 he was awarded the National Order of the Canadian province of Quebec, in 1996 he became commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters, and in 1998 he was awarded the Order of Canada – the highest award of this country, with the title of Honorary Officer of the Order.

Orchestras conducted by Maestro Duthoit have made over 200 recordings on Decca, Deutsche Grammophone, EMI, Philips and Erato. More than 40 prizes and awards have been won, incl. two Grammy awards (USA), several Juno awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy), the Grand Prize of the President of the French Republic, the Prize for the Best Disc of the Montreux Festival (Switzerland), the Edison Award (Amsterdam), the Japanese Recording Academy Award and German Music Critics Award. Among the recordings made are complete collections of symphonies by A. Honegger and A. Roussel, compositions by M. Ravel and S. Gubaidulina.

An avid traveler, driven by a passion for history and archeology, politics and science, art and architecture, Charles Duthoit traveled to 196 countries around the world.