involved in that musical world, because music is so universal. [ mid-tempo music plays ] [ igor stravinsky'sspring" plays ] >> narrator: by the time he came to the san francisco symphony in 1935, pierre monteux already had a spectacular international reputation. >> pierre monteux was one of the signature changes in this orchestra's history. now, his pedigree was enormous. we must remember that pierre monteux was the man who was conducting "the rite of spring" the night of its premiere. he had conducted orchestras all over the world. this man was an extraordinary and very experienced conductor, and for the san francisco symphony to nab him was an amazing achievement. >> narrator: in 17 years, the longest tenure of any music director in the symphony's history, monteux would begin to build the san francisco symphony's national reputation. [ train horn blows ] in march 1947, monteux would lead the orchestra on a monumental 9,000-mile journey -- the san francisco symphony's first national tour. [ classical music plays ] captured in this home movie, the tour crisscrossed the united states, playing

this is of igor stravinsky who i'm sure was maybe seven years old, maybe eight years old. he's a genius of the 20th century but he just... obviously he blessed him. obviously it was expected of him tchaikovsky was god. that was a boy. but one closing his page without too many words just the line continues and stravinsky took it over. so these areery symbolic things and we always have to remember that whatever we do is just another small protest of continuation of huge... like an ocean it moves somewhere. so any classical music, this is what we are. we are small maybe important but small pa of a huge ocean of music which has performed all the time. >> rose: before i go, since you have made this point that you want to encourage, develop, make clear the work of living composers, name me five living composers, or six, that you want the world to know morebout in terms of your belief that the music they are creating. >> i have two friends amongst living composers who are senio much more senior to my age, for example. one of them is chadrin. another one is french. over 90 years o