Accompanied by the Orchestre de Paris, the French classical pianist Hélène Grimaud plays Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58. Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach. Recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in 2001 during the BBC Proms.
Movements (with start times):
- Allegro moderato 01:08
- Andante con moto (E minor) 20:40
- Rondo (Vivace) 26:12
Orchestre de Paris
The Orchestre de Paris is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra currently performs most of its concerts at the Salle Pleyel under the baton of Paavo Järvi (as of September 2015).
In 1967, following the dissolution of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, the French Minister of Culture, André Malraux, and his director of music, Marcel Landowski, engaged conductor Charles Munch to create a new orchestra in Paris. Soon after its creation, Munch died in 1968, and Herbert von Karajan was hired as an interim music advisor from 1969 to 1971. Successive music directors include Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, and Semyon Bychkov. Christoph von Dohnányi served as artistic advisor from 1998-2000.
During his tenure, Barenboim saw a need for a permanent chorus for the orchestra, and engaged the English chorus master Arthur Oldham to create the Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris (Chorus of the Orchestre de Paris) in 1976. Oldham remained with the Chorus till his retirement in 2002. From 2002 to 2011, Didier Bouture and Geoffroy Jourdain shared direction of the Chorus, which is now run by Lionel Sow.
Christoph Eschenbach was music director from 2000 to 2010. He conducted recordings of music of Luciano Berio, Marc-André Dalbavie, and Albert Roussel with the orchestra. In May 2007, Paavo Järvi was named the orchestra’s sixth music director, effective with the 2010-2011 season.[6] Järvi is scheduled to conclude his tenure with the Orchestre de Paris at the conclusion of his current contract, at the end of the summer of 2016. In June 2015, the orchestra announced the appointments of Daniel Harding as its 9th principal conductor, and of Thomas Hengelbrock as a principal guest conductor, effective September 2016.
The Orchestre de Paris found itself in an unusual situation in 1989 when its performance of Ravel’s Boléro became a hit on the Dutch pop chart. The recording, made in 1982 under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, was released as a CD single to coincide with the success of the song “No more boleros” by the Dutch pop singer Gerard Joling, which included parts of the Ravel work. With its playing time of 17 minutes, the Orchestre de Paris single remains the longest recording ever in the Dutch Top 40.
Sources
- Orchestre de Paris on wikipedia
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