Next February 19 at the Harris Theater in Chicago, the Ensemble of the famous West-Eastern Divan Ensemble founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said will premiere Jawb by Benjamin Attahir which will be played throughout the entire North American tour of the ensemble.

Next January 31 we will be at the Auditori de Barcelona with Hèctor Parra, “terrible child” (and prodigy) of musical Catalonia: his Wanderwelle for baritone and orchestra will be premiere by the faithful Orquesta Sinfonica de Barcelona y Nacional de Catalunia conduct by, always fascinating, Kazushi Ono. The ideal moment to listen for the growing number of Parra’s music lovers, before finding his prodigious Bienveillantes at the Nuremberg Opera at the end of the season.

More inspired and convincing than ever, the muse of Baptiste Trotignon, the French piano jazz star and a respected composer over the course of a decade, reveals to us in the start to the new year a concerto for the sensual and sensitive trumpet of Romain Leleu. Following its first world premiere in Finland on 30 January, Move will tour throughout France with a prestigious panel of co-commissioning chamber orchestras.

On January 26, a new work by Pascal Dusapin’s, used to large halls and German formations, will be premiered under the direction of Kent Nagano and his Hamburg orchestra with the world premiere of Waves. Concerto written for the expert fingers of the organists Iveta Apkalna (who will premiere it) and Olivier Latry (in national premiere in various countries next season). alongside the Elbphilharmonie, the work will be perform by the Symphonic Orchestra of Montreal, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, la Philharmonie de Paris, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande et l’Orchestre du Théâtre de la Monnaie. It is an understatement to say, with such kinship, that the work is expected and already considered as one of the essential milestones of the new symphonic decade.

On 8th February, Radio France’s Présences Festival will present the world premiere of Oscar Bianchi's third string quartet, Sintonía, by the talented Quatuor Diotima who is also been behind the commission of his very first string quartet. Centered upon the dialectic between the known and the unknown, the familiar and the foreign, much like the composer's two previous works for string quartet, Sintonía tackles, according to the composer's own words, "the potential wealth and the consequences of otherness into our lives and thoughts.”

It is again at the Halle aux grains, the headquarters of an orchestra of the Capitole de Toulouse, in top form now for several years, that we will have the opportunity to discover 117:2c, Benjamin Attahir’s latest work dedicated to the ensemble and its conductor Tugan Sokhiev. A first-rate opportunity to look back with the young French composer, now present in the best concert halls in the world, on his "historic" companionship with the Toulouse orchestra.

Centenary of the disappearance of the French composer

A universal knowledge, an unfailing inspirational creativity, courage in the face of personal hardships: we could list endlessly the list of unique qualities belonging to Camille Saint-Saëns and his art that make of the French composer, undoubtedly the most famous in the world, a figure that strongly challenges us to this day. The year will offer, one century after the disappearance of this icon from the Durand catalogue, a unique opportunity to rediscover a corpus that is not only limited to repertoire works, the famous Carnival des Animaux, the Violin Concerto, Samson et Dalila or the Organ Symphony.
One could not imagine better ambassadors than the Canadian musicologist Sabina Ratner, author of the composer's Thematic Catalogue of his Complete Works, and many of the greatest musicians of the contemporary scene, from François-Xavier Roth to Kent Nagano, not to mention Olivier Latry, Marc-André Hamelin and Steven Isserlis. Find them now in the exclusive publication that these authors and artists wished to develop exclusively for the Editions Durand-Salabert-Eschig, the first Act of a topicality surrounding Saint-Saëns... To be continued ! 

Proof, if ever such a thing were possible, of Oscar Bianchi's creative imagination and his particular talent for bringing together distant sound worlds, will be given next February with the premiere at the Sochi international winter festival (WIAFS) of a concerto for electric guitar and orchestra, Etoile, by the Belgian guitarist Nico Couck and the Novaya Rossiya orchestra conducted by Yuri Bashmet. Come discover the work on 23rd February.

It is in Japan that we will find a major French composer, Alexandre Desplat and his chamber opera En Silence, co-signed with the director Solrey. The Lucilin Ensemble will present, with its usual integrity, the work on January 18 in Kyoto and January 25 in Kanagawa, alongside an original cast.

Meet the creators of this landmark publication, Edmond Lemaître and Denis Herlin, before soon being able to discover on the stage a Pelléas et Mélisande more authentic than ever!