Hilary Hahn / Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / Mikko Franck PARIS

 

PARIS

Vilde Frang BARTÓK Violin Concerto No. 1 ENESCU Octet

Bela Bartók and George Enescu were born in same Year - 1881, Bartók in the Austrian-Hungarian city of Nagyszentmiklos (today Romania), Enescu in the Moldovian town of Liveni-Botosani (today Romania). 

Both pieces on this recording are youth works of theirs - 1900 (Enescu's Octet) and 1907 (Bartók's first violin concerto). Both works were neglected - Enescu's Octet for nearly a decade due to the challenges of the piece (being premiered in 1909) , and Bartók's concerto was neglected by its dedicatee, the violinist Stefi Geyer (who was also his young love), and was published only after her death, in 1956 (being premiered in 1958). Bartók and Enescu both died in self-chosen exile - Bartók 1945 in New York, Enescu 1955 in Paris - yet both were respected and admired for being contributors to the development of their countries’ culture and art, particularly as great ambassadors for the folk music.

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / Mikko Franck DEBUSSY L'Enfant Prodigue - RAVEL L'Enfant Et Les Sortilèges

Recorded live in Paris, two contrasting music dramas on the theme of an errant child, written by two supreme French composers and performed by a starry line-up of francophone singers. Mikko Franck, in his role as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducts Debussy’s L’Enfant prodigue, starring Roberto Alagna and Karina Gauvin, and Ravel’s L'Enfant et les sortilèges, with Nathalie Stutzmann and Sabine Devieilhe among the singers surrounding Chloé Briot in the role of the Child.

Complementing the two vocal works is the world premiere recording, made under studio conditions, of British composer Colin Matthews’ orchestration of Debussy’s Symphony in B minor. The work, which survives only as a manuscript for piano duet, was composed even earlier than L’Enfant prodigue, when Debussy was just 18, but it was not published until 1933, 15 years after his death. This orchestration of the Symphony in B minor was first heard in 2009. Colin Matthews is something of a Debussy specialist, having made admired orchestral transcriptions of all the composer’s piano Préludes, some of which have been recorded by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker. (Warner Classics)