Music
Paul Paray
1886–1979 · conductor, composer, organist
French conductor who rebuilt the Detroit Symphony after its 1949 collapse and made its celebrated Mercury Living Presence recordings between 1951 and 1962.
- Born
Le Tréport, France- Died
Monte Carlo, Monaco
aged 93- Birth name
- Paul Marie-Adolphe Charles Paray
- Detroit years
- 1951–1962
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Paray, a Prix de Rome winner who had led the Colonne and Lamoureux orchestras in Paris, first conducted the newly revived Detroit Symphony in 1951 and was engaged as its music director. The orchestra had disbanded in 1949 and was starting over. For his first seasons he divided his time between Europe and Michigan, but from 1956 he made his home in Detroit. That October he conducted the inaugural concert of Ford Auditorium on the riverfront, including his own Mass for the 500th anniversary of Joan of Arc's death. His Detroit decade is remembered for about seventy Mercury Living Presence recordings, made with a handful of microphones in the empty old Orchestra Hall and in the auditorium of Cass Technical High School; they sold well at home and abroad. He also championed American composers such as Copland, Barber and Piston. He retired in 1962 as conductor emeritus, an honorary citizen of Detroit.
Highlights
- Music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, 1951–1962
- About 70 Mercury Living Presence recordings with the DSO
- Conducted the opening concert of Ford Auditorium in October 1956
- Honorary citizen of Detroit; honorary doctorate from Wayne State University
- Took the DSO to New York for its first concert there
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Recorded here · 1958–1959
Detroit Symphony Orchestra — Orchestra Hall
The then-empty old Orchestra Hall, where Paray and the DSO recorded Mercury albums such as Ravel's Boléro (1958); restored from 1970, it is again the orchestra's home.
Recorded here · 1960–1961
Cass Technical High School (1922 building)
Demolished · 1922–2011
The school auditorium, also a DSO rehearsal hall, where Mercury recorded Paray's Debussy Nocturnes and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé (1961); the 1922 building was demolished in 2011.
Performed here · 1956–1962
Ford Auditorium
Demolished · 1956–2011
Paray conducted the hall's inaugural concert in October 1956 and led the orchestra there until 1962; the building was demolished in 2011.