The Toronto Symphony orchestra has introduced the signing of a brand new long-term recording partnership with unbiased label Harmonia Mundi. The deal represents the corporate’s first main settlement with an orchestra primarily based in North America.

The primary recording to launch the multi-disc settlement will likely be of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie. That launch will drop on February 2, 2024.

The following two recordings below the settlement have already been deliberate. They embrace Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinella (along with a piece by Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy), and The Miraculous Mandarin (along with a piece by Canadian composer Emilie LeBel). The Stravinsky/Murphy album will likely be recorded this season, and the Bartók/LeBel recordings in the course of the subsequent (2024/25).

“The Toronto Symphony Orchestra may be very excited to be the primary North American orchestra to companion with Harmonia Mundi. The inaugural recording of this partnership — the Turangalîla-Symphonie, among the many best compositions of the twentieth century — displays the ebullient vitality of at the moment’s Toronto Symphony below the distinctive musical management of Gustavo Gimeno, whereas paying homage to our storied historical past,” stated Beck Household CEO, Mark Williams.

The TSO has a distinguished recording catalogue of just below 100 titles that dates again to 1942. Their two most up-to-date releases, Vaughan Williams in 2018 with TSO Conductor Emeritus Peter Oundjian, and Massenet’s Thaïs in 2021 recording below TSO Conductor Laureate Sir Andrew Davis, gained JUNO Awards. Vaughan Williams: Orchestral Works additionally garnered a GRAMMY nomination. Each had been launched on the Chandos label.

Right here’s a style:

Harmonia Mundi

“I deeply take pleasure in my long-standing relationship with Harmonia Mundi, and am very impressed by this chance to deliver that relationship to Toronto,” stated Gustavo Gimeno. ​ “So once I was requested to pick a piece from everything of the repertoire, for my first recording with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, my choice was quick. Not solely is Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie traditionally important to the TSO — as TSO Music Director Seiji Ozawa recorded it with the orchestra in 1968 — nevertheless it additionally embodies the sense of forward-looking intrepidity that characterizes each the orchestra and the label. This new inventive alliance is splendidly apt, and I’m thrilled to be part of it.”

Fashioned in France in 1958, Harmonia Mundi has an intensive artist checklist. It’s a part of PIAS, a Belgian company specializing in unbiased music recording.

“I’m delighted to be beginning this collaboration with such a prestigious orchestra because the TSO,” stated Christian Girardin, Director of Harmonia Mundi. “Every new signing on the earth of symphonic music takes on explicit significance, particularly in our case. The historical past of the label is intertwined with that of a sure type of interpretation, primarily based on authenticity of objective but in addition on real inventive sincerity. So far as Gustavo Gimeno is worried, I need to say that I like his mix of humility and virtuosity on the baton. The upcoming initiatives define an exploration of the repertoire far faraway from any type of routine. In any case, that’s my dearest want: with an orchestra able to drawing on a wonderful historical past whereas continuously difficult itself, and a conductor attentive to the smallest particulars, I’m satisfied we are going to do an awesome job! Thanks all in your confidence, and welcome to Harmonia Mundi.”

Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie

The recording was captured in the course of the TSO’s A centesimal-anniversary season, and pays tribute to the orchestra’s GRAMMY®-nominated 1968 RCA recording of the identical piece. Together with Maestro Gimeno and the artists of the TSO, particular visitor artists and devices will add to the wow issue for the settlement’s inaugural recording.

Marc-André Hamelin, piano

To be honest, the title of virtuoso could also be tossed round too continuously; in terms of the technical presents of Marc-André Hamelin, it hardly appears an sufficient descriptor. He provides an excellent sense of artistry and musicianship, and has change into internationally famend for his interpretive abilities.

He has carried out world wide, and developed a fearless repute for taking up uncommon and exquisitely tough works, together with the music of Charles-Valentin Alkan and Godowsky, amongst others.

Nathalie Neglect and the Ondes Martenot

Messiaen was one of many few champions of the ondes Martenot. The ondes Martnet, additionally referred to as ondes musicales or musical waves in English, was one of many earliest digital devices. It was invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot, impressed by the overlapping waves of sound from navy radio oscillators.

It incorporates a 72-note keyboard mounted on a rail, and vacuum tube or transistor oscillators which produce the sound. It sounds one thing just like the theremin, producing waves of sound. Due to its wavering tone, it has been utilized in horror and science fiction movies.

Messiaen’s sister-in-law Jeanne Loriod was a famous ondiste. That can also be true of Nathalie Neglect.

Nathalie Neglect studied the instrument in Paris, the place she was unanimously awarded the First Prize in ondes Martenot on the Conservatoire Nationwide Supérieur. Her levels embrace a masters in musical philosophy, with a concentrate on Olivier Messiaen. She is an ondes Martenot professor on the Conservatoire these days.

Nathalie has carried out extensively in Europe, together with the US and Mexico, and labored with famous conductors and ensembles, together with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg. Her earlier recordings embrace Olivier Messiaen’s opera, Saint François d’Assise, performed by Ingo Metzmacher and staged by Pierre Audi.

The recording will likely be devoted to the reminiscence of the late Hans and Susan Brenninkmeyer, a pair who had been staunch supporters of the TSO by greater than three a long time.

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Anya Wassenberg is a Senior Author and Digital Content material Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher with OntarioLearn.

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