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Nathalia Milstein, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Mikko Franck – Stravinsky: Capriccio, Octuor, Le Sacre du printemps (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:08:07 minutes | 600 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
After Franck, Debussy and Strauss, Mikko Franck and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France here continue their collaboration with Alpha Classics, this time with the spotlight on Igor Stravinsky. The programme begins with two pieces from his so-called ‘neo-classic’ period: his Capriccio and Octet. In the first, in which Stravinsky sets up a dialogue between piano and orchestra, the soloist is one of the great stars of the new generation, the French pianist Nathalia Milstein. Then the mood darkens, with the primitive rhythms and ferocious chordal attack of The Rite of Spring , a work that Mikko Franck has long since wanted to immortalize on CD: a major masterpiece of the 20th century and an essential milestone for every orchestra. Every single player seems to be on fire in this recording, which puts the seal on seven years of collaboration and achievement with its Finnish Music Director.
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Nathalia Milstein, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France & Mikko Franck – Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps, Capriccio & Octuor (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:08:07 minutes | 643 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
After Franck, Debussy and Strauss, Mikko Franck and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France here continue their collaboration with Alpha Classics, this time with the spotlight on Igor Stravinsky. The programme begins with two pieces from his so-called “neo-classic” period: his Capriccio and Octet.
In the first, in which Stravinsky sets up a dialogue between piano and orchestra, the soloist is one of the great stars of the new generation, the French pianist Nathalia Milstein. Then the mood darkens, with the primitive rhythms and ferocious chordal attack of The Rite of Spring, a work that Mikko Franck has long since wanted to immortalize officially: a major masterpiece of the 20th century and an essential milestone for every orchestra.
Every single player seems to be on fire in this recording, which puts the seal on seven years of collaboration and achievement with the Finnish conductor.
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Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France & Mikko Franck – Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:01:45 minutes | 544 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
The baritone Matthias Goerne, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck launch a trilogy of Shostakovich’s works for baritone and orchestra with a recording of Symphony No.14. This will be followed by Symphony no.13 (Babi Yar ) and the Suite on poems by Michelangelo Buonarroti . The soprano Asmik Grigorian joins Matthias Goerne for this monumental yet highly subtle symphony setting poems by García Lorca, Apollinaire, Küchelbecker and Rilke. Drawing on their vast experience of the work and the passion that characterises them, they successfully embody all its dimensions: ‘The interpretative difficulty of this symphony is the need to hunt out subtle clues that are not immediately perceptible; a formidable expressive force is generated by their multiplicity, which, like a jigsaw puzzle, eventually makes sense’, writes Benjamin François. ‘It is Shostakovich’s fundamental affirmation that the inhuman actions of the executioners, Stalin and his henchmen, may well cause physical death, but cannot prevent the continued spiritual existence of works of art.’
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Vannina Santoni, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France & Mikko Franck – Debussy: C’est l’extase – La mer (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 52:07 minutes | 499 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Debussy’s song cycle Ariettes oubliées of 1888 set six poems from Paul Verlaine’s collection Romances sans paroles, beginning with C’est l’extase and Il pleure dans mon cœur – penetratingly poetic images of love’s ecstasy and rainlike tears of despair. The six Ariettes are the departure point for the arrangement realized in 2012 by British composer Robin Holloway in response to a request from the San Francisco Symphony. Holloway has altered their order while adding a further four Debussy songs, binding the whole work together with brief orchestral links and a feverish epilogue, ‘con moto agitato’. This world first recording is given by French soprano Vannina Santoni, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under the baton of Mikko Franck. The Finnish conductor, a great admirer of Debussy, here also presents the master’s bewitching masterpiece La mer , first heard in Paris in 1905.
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Midori, Martin Grubinger, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Peter Eötvös – Eötvös: DoReMi, Speaking Drums & Cello concerto grosso (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:11:02 minutes | 720 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
In November 2014, Radio France inaugurated its new auditorium with a programme giving carte blanche to one of the most eminent composers of our time, Peter Eötvös, who was then celebrating his seventieth birthday. On this occasion, three of his concertos were given their world premiere recordings under his direction with three soloists of the front rank. The violin concerto DoReMi, played here by its dedicatee Midori, is followed by Cello Concerto Grosso, a triangular dialogue between the solo cello, the cello section, and the full orchestra. The spectacular Speaking Drums concludes the programme on a highpoint: the orchestra (around forty musicians) prolongs the performance – theatrical as much as musical – of the percussionist, who declaims texts by the poets Sándor Weöres (in Hungarian) and Jayadeva (in Sanskrit) and moves from point to point on the platform, thus creating links with various instruments of the orchestra. The stunning Martin Grubinger lends his voice and his percussion playing to this piece, which ends in highly virtuosic polyrhythm.
Read more![Jean Claude Pennetier, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Christoph Poppen - Mozart: Piano Concertos No. 21 & No. 24 (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2023/04/12/3760127223160_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Jean Claude Pennetier, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Christoph Poppen – Mozart: Piano Concertos No. 21 & No. 24 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 57:54 minutes | 549 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Mirare
With these two piano concertos, Jean-Claude Pennetier establishes the authenticity of Mozart’s gift. The tenderness and fire of No. 21 mirror the anguish and inner intensity of No. 24. The two pieces are close to perfect and prove, as Mauriac put it, that: “As long as men inhabit the earth, just a few bars of Mozart can remind us of the paradise we lost, a paradise that may still exist as long as we can hear the echoes of its laughter and tears in such divine music.”
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Nelson Goerner, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France & Mikko Franck – Strauss: Burleske, Serenade & Tod und Verklärung (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 55:16 minutes | 518 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck continue their collaboration with Alpha and here invite one of the label’s flagship pianists, Nelson Goerner. The programme is devoted to Richard Strauss, coupling several of the German composer’s early works. The Burleske for piano and orchestra, written at the age of twenty, is brimming with lyricism and Romantic ardour; its tone colours herald Strauss’s operas, while the orchestration anticipates his symphonic poems. The piano part is exceptionally virtuosic: Hans von Bülow, for whom Strauss wrote it, called it unplayable! The Serenade for thirteen wind instruments harks back to Mozart’s Gran Partita K361 for similar forces. This brief work in a single movement begins in a nocturnal colouring, as befits a serenade, before growing more animated and finally returning to the contemplative atmosphere of the opening. The symphonic poem for large orchestra Tod und Verklärung depicts the last hour of an artist’s life: the listener is gripped from the very first bars, which evoke the breathing and heartbeats of a dying man. Strauss allows us to experience his final moments and the transfiguration of his soul in one of the most glorious moments in the symphonic repertoire.
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Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Mikko Franck – Franck by Franck (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:07:19 minutes | 626 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Some music lovers are familiar with Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne, Liszt’s symphonic poem based on Victor Hugo. But who knows that, ten years earlier, César Franck was inspired by the same poem? This early piece is recorded here by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck. They couple it with the famous Symphony in D minor, dedicated to Henri Duparc and premiered, without much success, in 1889. Even if the score is quite well-known today, in the end it is performed quite rarely, which is a pity, because it really has all the characteristics of a masterpiece: melodic and harmonic inspiration, refined orchestration, variety of mood, an ingenious structure. Two works by Franck… by Franck! This album marks the beginning of a collaboration between Alpha and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, which will focus on very varied repertories.
Read more![Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France - Pierre Henry: La Dixième Symphonie - Hommage à Beethoven (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/02/11/bchk1earwa9uc_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France – Pierre Henry: La Dixième Symphonie – Hommage à Beethoven (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:14:06 minutes | 709 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Pierre Henry, a supreme innovator in the field of sound aesthetics, opened the gates to many other musical universes through the applications of his technological research. Fascinated by Beethoven from an early age, he composed a ‘Tenth Symphony’: ‘It’s not the one Beethoven made sketches for’, he said. ‘Nor is it a synthesis of the nine. It is essentially a combinatorial work. It’s also a tribute to the man who hoped to exceed the limits of the orchestra. Perhaps a way of painting my portrait (our portrait) through this music and the influence it has had on mine. It is a dreamlike, logical and respectful trajectory through what these symphonies contain and suggest. The work deliberately uses as “raw material” only notes, groups or motifs from the nine symphonies.’
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![Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Maîtrise de Radio France, Mikko Franck - Debussy: La Damoiselle élue, Le martyre de Saint Sébastien & Nocturnes (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download](https://i0.wp.com/imghd.xyz/images/2022/04/24/k8dpq5cy4kafb_600.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Maîtrise de Radio France, Mikko Franck – Debussy: La Damoiselle élue, Le martyre de Saint Sébastien & Nocturnes (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:08:52 minutes | 636 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck continue their collaboration with Alpha Classics and here invite the Maîtrise and Chœur de Radio France to join them in a Debussy programme. This recording couples La Damoiselle élue, a work described by the composer as a “little oratorio in a mystical and somewhat pagan vein”, the Nocturnes for orchestra, composed between 1897 and 1899, and the Symphonic Fragments from Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien fashioned by André Caplet less than a year after the work’s first performance, and which ensured it would not be forgotten by posterity.
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