Orchestre de Paris, 2004–2005

It's the time for season previews (see the Ionarts preview of the Opera Season, 2004–2005, and Alex Ross's Fall Opera Preview, Fall Concert Preview, and New Music Preview at The Rest Is Noise), so here's another one. In an article (Les piliers de la sagesse, August 28) for Le Figaro, Jacques Doucelin looks at the new season of the Orchestre de Paris, directed by Christoph Eschenbach. The orchestra will perform this season at the Théâtre Mogador, before moving to its new digs in the restored Salle Pleyel (see my post on August 27) in late 2006:

The symphonic and chamber music programs—at the Musée d'Orsay and the Sorbonne, in particular—are centered on a complete Beethoven series [all nine Beethoven symphonies, played from Jonathan Del Mar's new critical editions published by Bärenreiter], a Mendelssohn cycle, a Brahms festival [February–March 2005, the four symphonies, the concertos, and the German Requiem], and contemporary music with two world premieres and three French premieres as well as a tribute to André Jolivet for his 100th birthday. Several conductors will make their debuts at the podium of the Parisian phalanx: Valery Gergiev, Roberto Abbado, Marc Minkowski, Richard Hickox, Alexander Briger, Christian Orosanu, and Fayçal Karoui. The financial crisis that has stricken the orchestra since its move means drastic budget reductions requiring the suppression of the posts of composer-in-residence and assistant conductor.

The Orchestre de Paris has just appeared at Royal Albert Hall in the 57th concert of the Proms, playing its program of Berio's Stanze and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (see my post on January 24).