Posts Tagged ‘Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France’

Good News for the Radio Orchestras?

Thursday, June 15th, 2017

By: Frank Cadenhead

June 15, 2017. An article in Tuesday’s Le Figaro newspaper gives some positive news about the future of the two radio orchestras in France, the Orchestre National de France and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. As we reported in 2015 in Musical America, there was panic when proposals were floated to combine the two orchestras into a single formation.

Mathieu Gallet, the new and young manager of the vast Radio France organization, suggested such a plan. It seemed to be one of those “Yes, Minister” moments from the 1980s U.K. comedy series about a clueless politician put in charge of a ministry. Gallet soon learned that the two orchestras each had a distinct musical personality and history, had their serious advocates and were highly competitive.

To be fair, Gallet was following a recommendation from the National Assembly and also aware that the income of the entire Radio France organization, something akin to the UK’s BBC Radio, was shrinking. It is largely financed by an annual tax on television sets and the numbers of sets in an average house have been sinking with the growth of the internet. Nevertheless, the two orchestras were maintained and are now stronger than ever. With Emmanuel Krivine music director of the National and Mikko Franck heading the Philharmonique, the two orchestras have popular leaders and strong artistic directors, Eric Denut for the National and Jean-Marc Bador for the “Phil.”

The continuation of the two orchestras is assured but there have been financial “adjustments” that the Figaro article has detailed. On March 31st, after long consultations, a convention was signed to aid the continuation of the two orchestras. This nouvel accord d’enterprise reduced the size of the National from 122 to 114 and the Philharmonique from 141 to 132 and was mostly achieved by not replacing retirees. The Radio France choir took the biggest hit, going from 114 to 90. Other minor economies, the number of Sunday performances and the length of breaks were adjusted as well as another not publicly discussed: the new accord allows musicians from one orchestra to fill in for an absent or sick colleague in the other orchestra instead of hiring supernumeraries from outside.

While these adjustments are not world-shaking, they do allow some savings. One obvious result of the economies allowed French film director Luc Besson to hire the Orchestre National to record the music for his new film, Valerian, when it usually would be one of the competitive London orchestras or an orchestra from Eastern Europe. While the changes can be seen as progress, unless the financing structure of the two orchestras evolve in the coming years, their long-term existence is still not secure.

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The Opening Night “Train Wreck” This Weekend

Tuesday, September 13th, 2016

By: Frank Cadenhead

Where is Stephen Colbert when you need him? He certainly could do a comedy routine about the train wreck that is the opening of the musical season in Paris this year. The goofiness of multiple openings of world-class events on the same day would get lots of laughs. In his absence I will try to fill in.

The French go on holiday in August. On September 1 they all arrive home and start unpacking and restocking their refrigerators. For those who work in opera or orchestras, after some days they are off to rehearsals to prepare for opening night. This year, “opening night” is all on one night, September 16. That night is the remarkable opening of internationally important season at the Opéra National de Paris. Their daring risk is to open with an almost unknown opera, Eliogabalo of Francesco Cavalli (composed in 1667). This effort is part of a recent laudable effort to revive interest in lesser known opera composers and return their works to the stage. The audience at the Palais Garnier will hear a much anticipated local debut of Leonardo Garcia Alarcon in the pit with Franco Fagioli in the title role. Young Thomas Jolly will stage this work and it is expected to raise the artistic bar for the whole season (which will include productions staged by Calixto Bieito and Dmitri Tcherniakov.)

But wait! On that very same night, the Orchestre de Paris is having a flashy opening in their glamorous new home at the Philharmonie de Paris with their exciting new music director, Daniel Harding. The opening program is the entirety of Scenes from Goethe’s Faust by Schumann. This spotlight makes a statement about the work, a magnificent and little-played masterpiece with soloists and chorus and will feature the masterful baritone Christian Gerhaher as Faust. Harding has been particularly engaged by this opus and has featured it in broadcasts when he appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic and has recorded it with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. How could this singularly important event be scheduled on the same night as the opening Eliogabalo?

Easy… A complete lack of management. Here is Norman Lebrecht’s writing about the Orchestre de Paris on his website Slipped Disc on September 12:

“There was widespread discontent when the Orchestre de Paris sacked Didier de Cottignies ahead of the arrival of its new music director, Daniel Harding.
No-one in the music world has a bigger contacts book than Didier and few know more about music.
However, Didier went and Daniel was said to be considering an English mate for the job. Apparently, that was greeted by the French like a Brexit-burger with HP sauce.
So the French establishment chose one of its own.
The new Délégué Artistique at the OdP is Edouard Fouré Caul-Futy, a producer at France-Musique. His experience is entirely with baroque music. He has a lot to learn.
He also happens to be the son-in-law of Martine Aubry, former presidential candidate and still a power-broker in the Socialist Party.
Aubry’s daughter, Clémentine, is Administrator of the auditorium at the Musée du Louvre.”

Edouard Foure Caul-Futy

Edouard Foure Caul-Futy

Googling the name Edouard Foure Caul-Futy today, September 13, made it absolutely clear that there is no current information in the French language about any such appointment on any French site. Are all the culture reporters still unpacking? Scrolling down his personal Facebook page, we see that he is just 35 and entered a note that he has left Radio France at the end of August. “Délégué Artistique, Orchestre de Paris,” is now shown as his current title. The Facebook page of the Orchestre de Paris shows nothing. Neither does their website and the only press contact listed on that site is for the excellent Annick Boccon-Gibod, who let us all know, on June 27, that she had left the orchestra. The speculation of Mr. Lebrecht, that this was an insider favor, seems more and more believable when the slim career of the new artistic director is more visible. It would be hard to image a serious job search resulting in the selection of someone with such a light CV, concentrated almost entirely in the early music scene.

But wait again! That same evening’s vital openings are not finished. September 16 has yet another important opening night, that of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in the auditorium at Radio France. Conductor Mikko Franck, starting his second year as music director, has recharged this orchestra and every concert shows the new excitement. This opening night has Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Lapsimessu (Children’s Mass). Rautavaara died just seven weeks ago and Franck, a fellow countryman of the composer, will conduct this work with the Maîtrise de Radio France, the children’s chorus. The Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 is to be played by France’s most renowned violin virtuoso, Renaud Capuçon, and Franck, a well-appreciated interpreter of Richard Strauss, will finish with the Alpine Symphony. It would be hard to imagine a music lover willing to pass on that concert.

There is good news. With the new halls, the Philharmonie and the Radio France Auditorium, both with outstanding acoustics, the possibility of scheduling all opening nights on the same day is easier. Also, when you look at seat availability for all those events on the 16th, you will see that all will be full. The Parisian audience is ever-expanding and it is clear that the new halls, particularly the Philharmonie, have attracted new ticket buyers.

But the bad news is the failure of management to understand the need for more public notice about what the classical music community offers the public. Since newspapers everywhere have been giving more space and notice to more popular music-making, classical music has seen a sag in their amount of space in the media. While Parisian concert reviews are still a feature in major publications and newspapers, the fact that editors and journalists have to choose events to cover and exclude others would be totally unnecessary if there was a reasonable consideration, by managers, of how to space your major events to achieve the maximum notice.

Here is my concert and opera schedule for the next few days. Thursday is the opening concert of the new season for the Orchestre National de France. With Daniele Gatti taking over the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam this season, we are awaiting performances by the new Music Director, Emmanuel Krivine. Since any decision takes a great deal of time bouncing around the long halls of Radio France, his appointment was only announced in June, long after the schedule was fixed. Opening night will be conducted by the French conductor Stéphane Denève (who some imagine might have been a better choice than Maestro Krivine.) The all-French program features Ibert, Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé. The next night, the famous “train-wreck” Friday, I will be again at the Radio France Auditorium for the opening concert of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, already noted. I was forced to make that choice because this concert, unlike the other events on the same night, will not be repeated. Saturday night was free and I will see the revival of Tosca as the first opera at Bastille (with Anja Harteros, Marcelo Alvarez and Bryn Terfel) because after the previous night’s multiple openings, nothing was repeated the next night. It is Sunday afternoon for the Harding debut with the Orchestre de Paris. The Monday night ticket is for the second performance of Eliogabalo at Palais Garnier. I might write again after the experience is over but the concentration of delights is even now a bit numbing. Music critics cannot write about every event and editors will not consider making space for such a concentration of events. In almost any other city, managers would work together to fashion a two to four week opening so that all events get the attention they deserve. This idea has yet to occur to the musical establishment in Paris.

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A Surprise Choice: Emmanuel Krivine as head of the Orchestre National de France.

Saturday, June 18th, 2016

by:  Frank Cadenhead

On Wednesday, during a morning interview on France Musique, Emmanuel Krivine was blunt. “I’m trying to go to the end by being a little less of an ass than at the beginning” His selection as the new music director of the Orchestre National de France, starting with the coming season, was much delayed and many see it as controversial. His statement is certainly a reference to his reputation as a difficult taskmaster. At 69, he also bucks the trend toward young music directors by Paris orchestras. Mikko Franck, 37, is the new head of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Daniel Harding, 40, is the incoming director of the Orchestre de Paris. Philippe Jordan, 41, is music director of perhaps the most talented orchestra of the four majors, the one at the Opera National de Paris.

Krivine replaces Daniele Gatti, who is going on to lead the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and is among top-ranked conductors, with regular appearances in Vienna, Berlin, Salzburg and Bayreuth. But Krivine’s career has not at that level and his leadership of the Barcelona Symphony and the Catalonia National Orchestra will come to end with this season. Since September, 2015, he has been the principal guest conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and he has recently ended a nine year stint as music director of the Luxembourg Philharmonic. He continues his direction of La Chamber Philharmonique, a chamber orchestra he founded in 2004. Like Krivine himself often does, It focuses on the original instrument performance style but mostly for the Romantic repertory.

It was the end of his term as music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (1976-1983) that I first heard about him. I remember the orchestra being more than a little unhappy with Krivine who had an difficult reputation with the musicians and who even avoided engagements with the orchestra during his last years at the helm. He also lead the Orchestra National de Lyon from 1987 through 2000 and, some say, brought them greater unity and international recognition but with much of the same grumbling by orchestra members and relief at his departure.

Monday’s announcement, by the CEO of Radio France, Matthieu Gallet, and the Director of Music and Cultural Creation at Radio France, Michel Orier, presumably was made after consultations with musicians of both radio orchestras; the Philharmonque’s office is a few doors down the hall from the Orchestre National, and there should be musicians there who remember his rule. We hear nothing about the ONF interim artistic director, Steve Roger, who was appointed for a one year term in July of 2015. One can assume that M. Orier or perhaps Gallet himself are taking on the role of artistic director (to save money?). The same is apparently true for the Orchestre Philharmonique with the angry departure of Eric Montalbetti, after 18 year of service, in late 2014. One does note that both Mikko Franck and now Maestro Krivine are found to be discussing an overall artistic concept and ideas for guest conductors, etc. in the press and interviews. One could assume that both orchestras have made the post of artistic director redundant.

The threats of combining the two radio orchestras and the subsequent strikes and controversy of more than a year ago are now in the past. Krivine seems assured that the budget threats are behind the orchestra and Radio France will not shrink its musician numbers. Much has been made of the fact that Krivine will be the first French conductor of the National since Jean Martinon (1968-1973). Not known for his French repertory, Krivine will not be, in his words, a “jingoistic missionary” but comments that “French music, it must be delt with, it’s very interesting.” He admits his repertory in this area is “limited.” “Therefore, I will invite whoever does the best work that I do not know, the type that would be absolutely appropriate for that composition.”

Regarding his previous experiences with the Orchestre National, he was equally candid: He recalls a 2004 engagement: “It was messy. It is true that it was not at all messy with Kurt Masur and with some other conductors. I’m just saying that I, that time, I felt I had too much to take care of with discipline.” His more recent experiences, in September of last year, were more positive. He found the discipline “was by listening, and that’s very healthy.” We will certainly know more about his alleged mellowing in the coming months and years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The 2015 Season So Far – Some Comments

Tuesday, December 29th, 2015

By: Frank Cadenhead

You are not likely to find Schoenberg at the center of a regular symphony concert in any season. The concert of December 4th of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, at the Auditorium at Radio France, with music of Brahms and Schoenberg, would be not high on my list except for one thing: the new Schoenberg opera, Moses und Aron, which just finished at the Bastille was far more engaging than I expected and the critically praised production also attracted a receptive audience. While his associate Alban Berg’s two operas, Wozzeck and Lulu, appear regularly in opera seasons around the world, Moses und Aron is still a rarity.

First, however, was the task of reaching the new Auditorium. With new security measures after the terrorist attack of November 13, the only access to the vast Radio France “Roundhouse” (a pet name for the building) was the main entrance, entirely on the other side of usual auditorium entrance. When the panting audience finally arrived, bags were checked, purses opened and passing through a scanner was part of the entry process. Security also kept the audience inside during the intermission, a surprise for those who anticipate their nicotine fix during the break.

Lise de la Salle, the soloist for the Brahms First Piano Concerto, is now a major star on the international stage and is well appreciated and familiar presence in Paris. Karl-Heinz Steffens, the guest conductor for the evening, was new to me. Steffens was Principal Clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic until 2007, when he reinvented himself aa a conductor. and his international career has, since then, moved sharply upward. He is Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in Ludwigshafen but has guest conducted major orchestras around Europe and Asia. In the opera pit, he has appeared with Berlin’s Staatsoper, La Scala and the Bolshoi.

First on conductor Steffens’ program was a lively view of Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 2 composed with forces, except woodwinds and brass, reduced. Steffens’ rapport with the orchestra was palpable. The Brahms concerto which followed found Ms de la Salle in a mystic mood and those tempo variations were a bit of a challenge. Steffens and the orchestra managed, with some effort, to stay on the same path and the performance, rich with emotion, was warmly received.

I was not the only person in the hall who had not experienced Schoenberg’s 1937 orchestration of the Quartet No. 1 of Brahms. Premiered by Otto Klemperer and the Los Angeles Philharmonic the next year, it sounded like the young composer had both young Shostakovich and Rimsky-Korsakov looking over his shoulder during the composition. Schoenberg was clearly having brilliant and serious fun here and it is certainly one of his most audience-friendly works.

The experience I will remember is the ample pleasure of the last work. A pleasure for the audience who, according to their expressive applause, found the last work surprisingly vibrant and captivating. A pleasure also for the musicians, playing at a very high level, who you could see were having a good time with the virtuoso orchestration and their conductor. A pleasure for the conductor, whose debut in France made his name suddenly very important.

A real pleasure for the orchestra management too who won credit for taking a chance with new repertory and artist and succeeding beyond their expectations. It is good to know that the “Phil” has continued its profile as a place to hear new conducting talent. With inspired music director Mikko Franck and artistic adventure as the theme, one would hope that their future is assured

 

 

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