After studying violin in Paris and Berlin, he became professor of violin at the Strasbourg Conservatoire, leader of the Strasbourg Orchestra (1919–25), and later leader of the Gewandhaus Orchestra at Leipzig. He appeared as conductor of the Straram Orchestra in Paris in 1932 and in 1935 helped found the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra. As its conductor (1935–38) he gave much attention to the performance of modern French works. He conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1949 to 1962, directing 39 world and 17 U.S. premieres. From 1951 to 1962 he directed the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, near Lenox, Mass. He wrote an autobiography, I Am a Conductor (Eng. trans. by L. Burkat, 1955).