Warner-Erato’s agreement with conductor Nathalie Stutzmann heralds a Dvorák album with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestr

The first recording under a new exclusive agreement between Warner-Erato and conductor Nathalie Stutzmann is a Dvorák album with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: the Symphony No. 9 (‘From the New World’) and American Suite, scheduled for release in August 2024. When Stutzmann inaugurated her tenure as the Atlanta Symphony’s Music Director in 2022, she became only the second woman to serve as artistic leader of one of the USA’s 25 top orchestras.

French-born Stutzmann holds another major post in the USA: Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, which she conducted in her Carnegie Hall debut in May this year. Her recent schedule of guest engagements has also embraced concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Munich Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In May 2023, in an achievement described by the New York Times as “the coup of the year”, she made a ‘double debut’ at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, conducting two operas in new productions. Shortly afterwards she made a similarly triumphant debut at the Bayreuth Festival, conducting Tannhäuser. She will return to Bayreuth this summer 24.

Nathalie Stutzmann first made her name as a contralto, launching a distinguished career in the mid-1980s. Some of her earliest recordings were for Erato, and she later returned to the label for three albums as both singer and conductor with Orfeo 55, the instrumental ensemble she founded in 2009 and directed for 10 years: Heroes from the Shadows (released in 2014), Quella Fiamma (2017) and Contralto (2021).

Her skills as a conductor were developed through studies with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula, and through mentoring from Sir Simon Rattle and the late Seiji Ozawa. When Stutzmann’s appointment in Atlanta was announced, Rattle (quoted in the New York Times) predicted she would give the orchestra “more colors and more daring and more shape,” adding, “She’s a wonderfully warm and explosive personality.” The New York Times has called her “a conductor who certainly knows how to challenge common wisdom,” and she herself told the newspaper: “To respect the score is to make it alive, and the score lives because of us. The only thing we can do for the score is to dare.”

When she conducted Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9in Atlanta in late 2023, the performance was greeted with a standing ovation and Atlanta’s arts website ArtsATL emphasised the “sense of voyage and discovery” that Stutzmann evoked.

“Nathalie Stutzmann has indeed entered a ‘new world’ as an artist in her evolution from singer to conductor,” says Alain Lanceron, President Warner Classics & Erato, “This Dvorák No. 9 will stand as her first recording of a symphony, giving proof of her thrilling capacity for shedding fresh light on works of the core repertoire. Having followed Nathalie’s career since its early days, I can say that her interpretations – in their strength, honesty, insight and affection – are very much an expression of the person I have come to know over the years.” 

Nathalie Stutzmann adds:

"It is an immense joy and honour to join the legendary label Warner Classics and sign an exclusive contract as a conductor. I have a long and rich history of collaboration with this amazing group of people, who love the artists they work with and create a family atmosphere. They are led by Alain Lanceron, whom I thank dearly for his support and truthfulness.

“It is a dream come true to work with a team that understands and respects the necessity for an artist to have the artistic freedom to create a true musical world, and to record works of immense beauty with my favourite orchestras in the world. Music is an eternal source of emotion and must be shared with the world as the best form of spiritual communication with the unknown and the meaning of life.

“Our first album is dedicated to Dvorák, with his ‘New World’ Symphony and American Suite, recorded live with the musicians of my Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. It is a lovely tribute to my amazing commitments across the Atlantic, but also to the new horizons opening up for our exciting collaboration."