In 1948 young Leonard Bernstein conducted the French National Orchestra (Orchestre national de France) for the first time. This collaboration later grew closer as the American conductor was regularly invited for partnerships between 1975 and 1981, the year when he embarked the French orchestra on a triumphant US tour. For the occasion, the New York Times critic wrote that the days of condescension towards French orchestras were over, and that ”the traditional recklessness had given way to a sense of discipline and orchestral unity.”
As if electrified by the magnetic presence of the conductor, the musicians always gave their all whenever he was leading them. This collaboration resulted in the recording presented here, captured during a concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1981, right before their tour.
Tinted with bronze colours by Bernstein and adorned with a deeply nostalgic atmosphere, Franck’s work, which marked the revival of the French Symphony, fits in the wake of the genre’s greatest masterpieces. Le Rouet d’Omphale, a symphonic poem by Saint-Saëns that drew the crowds to Parisian concert halls on Sunday mornings, and regained all of its glory under the lead of a conductor who never stopped admiring this kind of music so outrageously forgotten nowadays. © François Hudry/Qobuz