Stéphane Dénève, the new principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra of SWR, makes his debut recording with a thoughtful and exceptionally well-balanced program of music by the French composer Francis Poulenc.

As has been said many times before, Poulenc was both a monk and a rascal; deeply religious one hand, while enjoying celebrity and flamboyant lifestyle on the other. These two sides of his personality are beautifully represented in the program of this CD. First off, there is the enchantingly frivolous ballet “Les Biches,” written in 1924 for Serge Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. For this recording, Denève performs the full version, including the three tableaux with chorus.

Poulenc’s spiritual side is represented by the “requiem” he composed for the painter Christian Bérard – on the text of the Stabat Mater, a medieval hymn meditating on the suffering of Mary during Christ’s crucifixion. Scored for soprano, chorus and orchestra Poulenc’s hauntingly passionate Stabat Mater is widely considered one of the greatest sacred choral works of the 20th century.

The International Classical Music Awards are the only truly independent and international awards for classical music in the world. The jury consists of seventeen leading music critics representing magazines, online services and radio stations from across thirteen countries: Andante (Turkey), Classic Radio (Finland), Crescendo (Belgium), Fono Forum (Germany), Gramofon (Hungary), IMZ (Austria), Kultura (Russia), MDR-Figaro (Germany), Musica (Italy), Musik & Theater (Switzerland), Orpheus Radio (Russia), Opera (UK), Pizzicato (Luxembourg), Radio 100,7 (Luxembourg), Resmusica.com (France), Rondo Classic (Finland), and Scherzo (Spain). They selected 15 CD and DVD productions from among a total of 275 nominations. Remy Franck, President of the Jury said, ‘the winners are a selection made without any national motive and therefore provide reliable guidance to the global audience.

Recorded in Glasgow in 2010, the 2012 release of Le festin de l’araignée/Padmâvatî was the fifth and final volume in the critically-acclaimed Denève/RSNO/NAXOS series of Roussel orchestral works. Critic David Hurwitz wrote on ClassicsToday.com, “This final installment provides a worthy and memorable conclusion to the series… Denève has an unerring feel for Roussel’s idiom, for that combination of rhythmic drive, precision of accent, and elegant phrasing that somehow seems both personal to this composer as well as quintessentially French. Beyond that, he gets excellent, truly refined playing from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and he’s expertly recorded.”

Stéphane and his fellow winners will receive the ICMA Trophies during the annual Award Ceremony taking place this year in Milan, Italy, on March 18.  More information can be found on the ICMA website.

The award, one of the most prestigious in classical music, is selected by a jury comprising critics from the French magazine Diapason magazine and broadcasters from the public radio station France Musique.

The award ceremony was held on 19th November at Maison de Radio France in Paris.

Stéphane, who is currently in the USA, was unable to attend the award ceremony but said,

The ceremony was broadcast on France Musique and you can listen again to the broadcast online (until 20th December 2012) on its website, here.

“The main event in a month of musical emotion” – Diapason

Stéphane Denève’s recording of Debussy’s orchestral works with the RSNO has been awarded the ‘Diapason d’Or‘ – the ‘Event‘ of the month for September 2012 – by prestigious French music journal Diapason. The award, which literally means ‘The Golden Tuning Fork’ is considered one of the most important record awards in Europe and crowns a season of reviews for the ‘Denève Conducts Debussy‘ recording.

The magazine’s review makes a flattering comparison with the legendary French conductor, Charles Munch, who made his ‘definitive’ Debussy recordings in the 1950s and 1960s, including La Mer:

And the review suggests that Denève and the RSNO are “at risk” of becoming the “envy” of Paris:

You can read a reproduction of the article in its original French, below, with an English translation following.

Download (PDF, 6MB)

Translation of the review:

Marche écossaise (review by Gérard Condé, Diapason)

We had begun to despair of this Debussy anniversary, which has been poorly represented on record. But now it lights up, with both Philippe Bianconi’s piano and Stéphane Denève’s Scottish orchestra.

To conclude, in style, seven years at the helm of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (highlights including a thrilling Roussel series of recordings for Naxos), the French conductor wanted to leave a testimony of his conception of a music that he feels has been abused, through being drawn towards vague blur and abstraction. To follow the detours of the libretto in Jeux, since the stage directions are contained in the CD booklet, one is persuaded that the score  faithfully follows every step of the action). This does not take away anything from the magic of the work but better reflects its structure and its theatricality: the expression of grief of one of the female dancers (a clarinet duet) becomes totally meaningful.

The Music Breathes

If Stéphane Denève excludes any blurring effect in the polyphony (the intertwining counterpoints, so characteristics of Images, sounding here with a rare clarity) it is to focus on the melodic rubato of the various solos which, floating on a strong beat, create another blur – that of the independent hand coordination of, let’s say, a pianist, expert in Chopin’s style. In the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, not only does the flute sing freely, but so does the mass of violins in the central part. The Nuages, which open Nocturnes, really seem to float, dissolving and reconstituting again; the cor anglais is expressing again the eloquence of Tristan’s shepherd. The emotion that grips at the end of the stinging Fêtes is indeed the emotion of going back to life’s usual gloom.

Always lyrical, the music breathes as if it emerged from the bosom of a singer. An ideal singer actually, and the scrupulous respect of the dynamics of the score becomes the strength of these interpretations, the reason for the so irresistible power of the large crescendo of La Mer’s first movement. Denève claims Charles Munch as his model: his triptych has nerve, is raw, brilliant, dramatic – but the disciple here goes beyond the master, who was relying more only on the infallibility of his musicians.

If the Marche écossaise (1891, transcribed from piano to the orchestra in 1908) made Glasgow audiences smile, this second-rate composition was de rigueur. In addition, like the excerpts from L’Enfant prodigue (1884, revised by Caplet) and Printemps (1887, symphonic suite orchestrated by Busser), it has the merit of offering a musical angle less “aesthetically correct” on the art of Debussy which has been enclosed by its zealots in a forbidden circle. One appreciates all the more the fascinating strangeness of the last work, Berceuse héroique (1914).

Charles Munch, who always underlined the specificity of the French orchestral sound, would be surprised by the idiomatic colour that Stéphane Denève has obtained from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and all the more because orchestras hardly ever play like this anymore in Paris.

About the recording

The double-SACD is a complete survey of Debussy’s orchestral works - Images, Jeux, Nocturnes, La Mer, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire, Printemps, Two movements from ‘L’Enfant prodigue’ and Berceuse héroïque. It was recorded in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in October 2011/February 2012 and released by Chandos in May, to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Debussy’s birth.

Denève has received the Diapason d’or for a number of his previous recordings, and in 2007 was awarded the Diapason d’or de l’annee for his recording of Roussel’s Bacchus et Ariane/Symphony No3 with the RSNO, on Naxos.

Traditionally, July and August sees the great American orchestras take to their outdoor stages or summer homes in the countryside and this year Stéphane will be joining the LA Philharmonic at the famous Hollywood Bowl, the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Vail Valley Festival and in Saratoga Springs and he will be making his debut at the Boston Symphony’s Tanglewood Music Center, for its celebratory 75th Anniversary Season.

Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Season

The Shed, Tanglewood

Tanglewood is one of the world’s most beloved music festivals, located in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. The largest concerts take place in ‘The Shed’ (‘The Koussevitzky Music Shed’), Tanglewood’s oldest venue. The structure seats over 5,000, inside and out – as well as seating on the lawn you can also opt for an indoor position, under the acoustically-refined roof.

On August 7th Stéphane Denève will take part in a very special, ‘star-studded’ firework concert, ‘Tanglewood On Parade’. This unique concert features not one, but FIVE, conductors: Denève himself, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, Keith Lockhart and John Williams. He will be conduct the Suite from Stravinsky’s Firebird, in a programme that also includes music by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and, of course, OSCAR-winner John Williams.

Yo-Yo Ma

On August 11th, Stéphane Denève will conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a Tanglewood concert that will open with the word-premiere of Andrè Previn’s Music for Boston and concludes with Shostakovich’s popular Fifth Symphony. Joining Denève and the orchestra will be the world’s best-known cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, to perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

Vail and Saratoga with the Philadelphia Orchestra

Gerald R Ford Ampitheatre, Vail Valley

Stéphane will appear with the Philadelphia Orchestra in two festivals this summer. The Orchestra is resident at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, which this year celebrates its 25th Anniversary Season. Vail Valley is a picturesque ski resort, nestled in the magnificent Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Stéphane Denève will conduct two concerts in this year’s Vail Valley Festival. On July 13th the programme again includes Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and Elgar’s Cello Concerto (this time with cellist Alban Gerhardt). The concert on July 14th features Joshua Bell, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, as well as music by Mozart and Dvorák.

The Philadephia Orchestra also enjoys a three-week residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York State – a venue that was built for the Orchestra. The Center is set-in a 2,400 acre park preserve, surrounded by hiking trails, geysers and natural mineral springs. The sloping lawn is perfectly suited to full view the covered amphitheatre whilst enjoying a picnic!

You can enjoy some candid ‘behind-the-scenes’ photos of Stéphane and the Orchestra in Vail in 2011 (including Stéphane riding a ‘Diggler’!) on the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Facebook page.

Stéphane Denève conducts three concerts with the orchestra, 1-3 August, joined by pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The third concert will see Denève in rather unusual performance territory as he conducts a programme of film music (predominantly music from John Williams’ Star Wars), accompanied by what the concert brochure describes as:

If you can get to Saratoga Springs, this sounds like an event not-to-be-missed!

LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl

The famous Hollywood Bowl, summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is the largest natural outdoor amphitheatre in the United States and a venue where Southern Californians gather to picnic and enjoy outstanding music under the stars.

This July Stéphane Denève returns to the Hollywood Bowl to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic in two concerts:

On July 24th he will conduct a concert of ‘dazzling Russian Romantic works’ that includes Rachmaninov’s well-known Symphonic Dances and two lesser-known works – Mussorgsky’s ‘Symphonic Synthesis of Boris Godunov’ (an arrangement by Hollywood Bowl legend Leopold Stokowski) and Conus’ Violin Concerto. Life-long friends with Rachmaninov, Conus was a Russian violinist and composer whose most ‘famous’ work is this concerto.

Hollywood Bowl

On July 26th Denève will once again team up with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, to perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, in a fireworks concert that also includes quintessentially American music by Bernstein and Gershwin, complemented by Ravel’s sensuous Suite No2 from Daphnis et Chloé.

Whether West-coast or East-coast, it promises to be a exciting summer of music-making in the USA for Stéphane Denève! View all his forthcoming concerts in the Concerts Calendar.

Stéphane Denève has been nominated for Gramophone magazine’s prestigious Artist of the Year 2012 award, part of their 2012 Classical Music Awards. The winner is voted for by Gramophone readers, from a shortlist of 10 artists who the magazine’s editorial team ‘really feel have contributed something special to classical music throughout the past year’.

Stéphane is honoured to be included in a distinguished group of nominees, the other artists shortlisted being: soprano Natalie Dessay, tenor Jospeh Calleja, pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, violinist Isabelle Faust, countertenor Phillipe Jaroussky, mezzo Magdalena Kožená, fortepianist Andreas Staier and conductors Daniel Barenboim and Andris Nelsons.

Gramophone have created a special page about Denève, where readers can enjoy the RSNO’s recent ‘Au Revoir, Stéphane’ video and listen to excerpts from Roussel’s Suite in F and the recent Chandos Debussy CD box set.

It is this recording that is singled out in particular by the Gramophone team (alongside the ‘great rapport with [the RSNO] and the Scottish audience’ and ‘an impressive Roussel series for Naxos’). The magazine’s deputy editor, Sarah Kirkup will describe the Debussy recording sessions in the August 2012 issue of Gramophone. During the sessions she interviewed Stéphane and reported: