Albert Wolff (conductor)

French conductor and composer (1884–1970)

Albert Louis Wolff (19 January 1884 – 20 February 1970) was a French conductor and composer of Dutch descent. Most of his career was spent in European venues, with the exception of two years that he spent as a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and a few years in Buenos Aires during the Second World War. He is most known for holding the position of principal conductor with the Opéra Comique in Paris for several years. He was married to the French mezzo soprano Simone Ballard.

Wolff was born in Paris, of Dutch parents, though he was a French citizen from birth, never lived in the Netherlands, and never had a Dutch passport. When only 12 years old, he began his musical education at the Paris Conservatoire. There, he studied with such teachers as André Gedalge, Xavier Leroux, and Paul Antonin Vidal. At the same time he played the piano in cabarets and was organist at the Église Saint Thomas d'Aquin (Paris) for four years. Upon graduation at the age of 22, Wolff was awarded first prizes in harmony and accompaniment.

In 1906 Wolff joined the staff of the Opéra Comique, the theatre which became the centre of his career, while leading ensembles elsewhere in the city of Paris. He made his conducting debut at an opera gala in Strasbourg (then under German control) on 9 May 1909, following this by getting as much experience as possible with many short engagements in all operatic genres around France. Meanwhile, in 1908, Wolff was appointed chorus master at the Opéra Comique. This was his first experience with any form of stage work. He remained in that position for three years before being given an opportunity to conduct the premiere of Laparra's La jota. In August 1910 Wolff conducted Fauré's incidental music in Georgette Leblanc's production of the play Pelléas and Mélisande in the cloisters and gardens of Saint Wandrille abbey. He continued as a conductor at the Opéra Comique until the outbreak of World War I. Throughout that conflict, Wolff served his country first as at Les Éparges, then as a pilot (including a tour of Morocco), and was decorated for his courage. At the end of the War, Wolff went to the United States to join the conducting staff at the Metropolitan Opera, replacing Pierre Monteux in the French repertoire. His made his debut on 21 November 1919, in Gounod's Faust. Although Wolff's work with the company received consistently positive reviews from critics, he spent less than two full seasons at the Metropolitan Opera. While with the company Wolff was able to conduct several performances of his own opera L'oiseau bleu, the premiere being in the presence of Maurice Maeterlinck, whose play of the same name the opera was based on. In 1938 he was twice a guest conductor at the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra; in 1947 he conducted the same orchestra with Geirr Tveitt in a recording of the latter's 3rd piano concerto. He also conducted a radio performance of his own flute concerto with Per Wang as soloist with Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra on NRK. Wolff conducted the premieres of the opéra comiques L'École des maris (1935) and Madame Bovary (1951) by Emmanuel Bondeville. In 1945 he became director of the Opéra Comique for a short while. While there, he conducted the first performance of Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias (1947) and although he resigned from the position not long after he took it, Wolff continued to conduct occasionally at the theatre up until his death in 1970. He conducted 124 performances of Pelléas et Mélisande at the house, more than any other conductor. He also became associated with the Paris Opera where he became a conductor beginning in 1949. Albert Wolff made many recordings of French orchestral music for Polydor in Paris in the 1930s, along with some Russian pieces, and abridged versions of Faust and La Bohème (in French). In the 1950s he set down opera and orchestral music for Decca, first in mono and later a few in stereo. His recordings included Carmen, and Bizet's complete music (in the context of the play) for L'Arlésienne. With the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, his discography included Adam's Giselle (complete) and Glazunov's The Seasons, overtures by Berlioz, Auber, Hérold, Suppé, Nicolai and Řezníček, orchestral works by Falla, Ravel, Lalo and Franck, Gustave Charpentier's Impressions d'Italie and Massenet's Scènes Pittoresques and Scènes Alsaciennes. With the Pasdeloup Orchestra, he recorded Landowski's Symphony No. 1 'Jean de la Peur'. Some of his opera recordings for French radio have subsequently been issued on CD, such as Adam's Le chalet (Gaité Lyrique label), Massenet's Thaïs (Le Chant du Monde); he also recorded excerpts from Bondeville's L'École des maris (Decca/London).

Le clochard, from a scenario by his son Pierre.