Ansermet beethoven biography

Swiss conductor (1883–1969)

Ernest Alexandre Ansermet (French:[ɛʁnɛstalɛksɑ̃dʁɑ̃sɛʁmɛ]; 11 November 1883 – 20 February 1969)^[1] was a Swiss conductor.

Biography

Ansermet was born in Vevey,^[1] Switzerland. Originally he was a mathematics professor, teaching at the University of Lausanne. He began conducting at the Casino in Montreux in 1912, and from 1915 to 1923 was the conductor for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

Travelling in France for this, he met both Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and consulted them on the performance of their works.

Ansermet beethoven biography

During World War I, he met Igor Stravinsky, who was exiled in Switzerland, and from this meeting began the conductor's lifelong association with Russian music.

In 1918 Ansermet founded his own orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR).

He toured widely in Europe and America and became famous for accurate performances of difficult modern music, making first recordings of works suc