Over to Paris this week for a concert by Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Alain Altinoglu and featuring Pianist Romain Descharmes in a program of music by Chabrier, Saint-Saens and Florent Schmitt.

The venerable war-horse Espana by Emmanuel Chabrier opens the concert, followed by a wildly well-received Saint-Saens Piano concerto Number 2, with Pianist Romain Descharmes, who follows with two encores. The concert concludes with the seldom heard (at least here in the U.S.) La Tragèdie de Salomè by the early 20th century composer Florent Schmitt.

A good concert of mostly familiar music done as only a French orchestra can.

The concert is broken up between two players - the Chabrier and the Saint-Saens (and encores) are on the top player and the Schmitt is on the bottom player.

For you note takers:

16 mai 2012
En direct de la Cité de la Musique : Chabrier, Saint-Saëns, Schmitt

Emmanuel Chabrier
España (1883)

Camille Saint-Saëns
Concerto N°2 en sol mineur Op.22 (1868)

Florent Schmitt
La Tragédie de Salomé Op.50 (1907)

Romain Descharmes, Piano
Orchestre de Paris
Alain Altinoglu, Direction
Coproduction Cité de la musique, Orchestre de Paris.

Enjoy.

Digging again into the Transcriptions of 1940's and 1950's French Radio.The music of Gabriel Pierne` this week, as performed by The Pierre Jamet String Quintet, featuring Pierre Jamet on Harp, in a performance of Pierne's Variations Libres et Finale op. 51. Recorded by French Radio in 1955, and as far as I know, not re-issued in any form.

Gabriel Pierne` was a prolific composer, but during his lifetime he was equally well known as a conductor whose legendary recordings of the 1920's and 30's were sought after for years by collectors. They've been reissued at various times over the years. While Pierne` the composer underwent a period of obscurity, being overshadowed by his contemporaries Ravel, Debussy, Satie and Stravinsky. But time has shone a little more light on the lesser luminaries of the period, and the music of Pierne` has been getting performed and recorded more regularly of late.

A nice closer to the weekend.

I always talk about how many concerts are broadcast any given day by the radio networks in Europe, and how many of them are live on-the-spot. Well, to prove that point, here is a concert that was recorded lived earlier today (8:00 pm Paris time - 11:00 am Los Angeles time) featuring Orchestre National de France led by podium superstar Daniele Gatti and featuring Antonio Meneses, cello in music by Faure`, Saint-Saens, Debussy and Ravel.

Both the orchestra and soloist are given rousing ovations and, as is customary, they play rousing encores.

Great concert all the way around, and to hear it live as-it's-happening is a bonus.

The concert is divided between two players and the intermission feature has been edited out (no interviews, just commercial recordings featuring Meneses) and the announcements have been edited down in order to take the concert down from its original three hours to a reasonable length.

Here's what's being played:

Part 1 - Gabriel Fauré

Pelléas et Mélisande, Musique de scène pour la pièce de Maeterlinck(1902)

Camille Saint-Saëns

Concerto N°1 en la mineur Op.33 (1869)

Part 2 - Claude Debussy

Jeux (1912)

Maurice Ravel

Daphnis et Chloé, Suite N°2 (1913)

Antonio Meneses, Violoncelle
Orchestre National de France
Daniele Gatti, Direction

Who says music is dead? Not around here.

Remember, it's Anti-Road Rage Wednesday so step away from the computer and turn the speakers up.

And enjoy.

Over to Austria by way of Spain this week for a concert given on May 21, 2011 by French Piano sensation Cedric Tiberghien in a recital of music by Beethoven, Schumann, Ravel and Debussy.

Tiberghiend has been getting great reviews over his U.S. debut with the National Symphony (of Washington D.C.) and is slated for a busy tour schedule of the U.S. this year.

But in the meantime, here is the recital from last year as recorded by ORF in Austria and relayed to Radio Nacional Espana. The concert is broken up into two parts - Part One has the Beethoven and Schumann and Part Two has the Ravel and Debussy.

Here are the notes:

17.00►Gran Auditorio
Concierto celebrado en la Sala Markus Sittikus de
Hohenems el 21 de mayo de 2011. Grabación de la ORF,
Austria. Schubertiadas 2011.

BEETHOVEN: Sonata para piano nº 14 en Do sostenido menor, Op. 27 / 2.

SCHUMANN: Kreisleriana, Op. 16.

RAVEL: Gaspard de la nuit.

DEBUSSY: Masques. D‟un
chaier d‟esquisses. L‟isle joyeuse.
Cedric Tiberghien (p.).

We're looking at almost perfect Anti-Road Rage music today. I think it's safe to operate heavy machinery while listening to this one.

Enjoy no matter what.