Montreal Symphony Orchestra

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Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Canadian orch., the successor of several previous organizations. From 1897 to 1907 an orch. with this name was cond. by Joseph Goulet, a Belg. violinist who lived in Montreal from 1890. Douglas Clarke, dean of faculty of mus., McGill Univ., in 1930 formed sym. orch. which survived until 1941 and introduced many important works and soloists to Canada. A rival orch., sharing some of the players, was formed in 1935 as Les Concerts Symphoniques, sometimes cond. by Wilfrid Pelletier and after 1941 by the Belg. Désiré Défauw. In 1954 orch. was re-named Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal—Montreal SO. Conds. after Défauw: O. Klemperer 1950–3; I. Markevich 1955–60; Z. Mehta 1961–7; F.-P. Decker 1968–75; R. Frühbeck de Burgos 1975–6; Charles Dutoit 1978–90.

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Montreal Symphony Orchestra

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