Orchestre Lamoureux
A private concert organization, the Orchestra of Lamoureux Concerts has one of the longest histories and most honored names in the history of Parisian symphonic music. In the 1990s it began emerging from a period when its historical prestige far exceeded its present artistic merit.
Conductor Charles Lamoureux (1834-1899) was offered a contract by the Théätre du Château d'Eau to give weekly symphonic concerts. His orchestra, named the Société des Nouveaux-Concerts, gave its first performance on October 23, 1881. It had competitors: the Association Artistiques, founded by Colonne in 1874, and the Concert Populaires led by Jules Etienne Pasdeloup (1819-1887). When the Nouveaux-Concerts merged with a short-lived rival (Concerts de l'Opéra) in 1897 and took the name Concerts Lamoureux, the new name was only a ratification of what he had been called informally for years, and also honored its leader, who retired that year and gave his son-in-law the post of conductor.
After Lamoureux died in 1899, his musicians organized into a co-operative society to continue the orchestra. It remained an important force in French music, giving the premieres of both the Nocturnes (1900) and La Mer (1903) by Debussy, and numerous other new works. When World War I depleted its ranks, it temporarily merged with the Concerts Colonne (which had similarly perpetuated itself following Colonne's death).
Paris between the wars was a world center of new music. The Colonne and Lamoureux separated and the Concerts Pasdeloup was revived in 1920, each writing chapters in the busy musical history of that era. Paul Paray, Albert Wolff, and Eugène Bigot conducted the Lamoureux (and the other two, as well). A change in the way the symphony business in Paris was conducted was foreshadowed in 1937, when the government funded the National Orchestra of RTF (the French radio service) for broadcasting purposes. This evolution was stalled for a while by the German occupation of 1940-1944, which slowed concert life, but the Lamoureux survived. Jean Martinon and Igor Markevitch were among its chief conductors in the decades after the war, but the private orchestras declined in quality as the state-sponsored groups took the forefront of orchestral music. Competition got even worse when the Conservatorie Concerts were disbanded in 1968 to be replaced by the full-time professional Orchestre de Paris. This resulted in the decline of all three private concert series.
The 96 musicians of the Lamoureux Concert Orchestra began to rebuild their historic prestige. In 1993, after two guest appearances by virtually unknown conductor Yutaka Sado, the orchestra hired him as their chief conductor. Under his leadership the Lamoureux Orchestra began recording again and its first recording was a group of Jacques Ibert competitions on the Naxos label and then began a program to record many of the masterworks by Ravel and others that the orchestra had premiered.
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Similar artists
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Saint-Saëns: Concerto pour piano No. 2 - d'Indy: Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français (Mono Version)
Jean Doyen, Jean Fournet, Orchestre Lamoureux
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn & Schubert: Orchestral Works
Orchestre Lamoureux, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Otto Klemperer
Klassiek - Released by Archipel on 1 jan. 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Les Grands Ballets: Coppélia-Sylvia-Les sylphides
Jésus Etcheverry, Orchestre Lamoureux
Klassiek - Released by Universal Music Division Decca Records France on 1 jan. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Violin Masterpieces: Arthur Grumiaux Plays Paganini & Mozart
Arthur Grumiaux, Orchestre Lamoureux, London Symphony Orchestra, Franco Gallini, Sir Colin Davis
Concertmuziek - Released by Jube Classic on 4 feb. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Orchestral Works
Igor Markevitch, Orchestre Lamoureux
Klassiek - Released by Artemisia on 6 nov. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cello Masterpieces: Pierre Fournier Plays Lalo, Schumann & Tchaikovsky (Remastered 2015)
Pierre Fournier, Orchestre Lamoureux, Philharmonia Orchestra, Jean Martinon, Sir Malcolm Sargent
Klassiek - Released by Jube Classic on 7 aug. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Suites pour orchestre - Chabrier: España (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Jean Fournet
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gluck · orphée et eurydice
Léopold Simoneau, Suzanne Danco, Pierrette Alarie, Hans Rosbaud, Orchestre Lamoureux
Klassiek - Released by G.O.P. on 28 feb. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Aperçus de quelques enregistrements importants, no. 3 (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Jean Fournet
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Honegger: Une cantate de Noël (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Chœurs Élisabeth-Brasseur, Paul Sacher
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Smetana: Ouverture de La fiancée vendue - Glinka: Kamarinskaïa (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Ohan Durian
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Concerto "Dumbarton Oaks" (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Günter Wand
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: 4 Ouvertures (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Jean Martinon
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Ma mère l'Oye (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Vladimir Golschmann
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Dukas: L'apprenti sorcier (Mono Version)
Ferenc Fricsay, Orchestre Lamoureux
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Milhaud: Concertinos de printemps, d'été, d'automne et d'hiver (Stereo Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Darius Milhaud
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Orchestral Suites, Extracts (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Igor Markevitch
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Concerto pour piano No. 5 "Empereur" (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Dimitri Chorafas, Jean-Bernard Pommier
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Planquette: Les cloches de Corneville, Extracts (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Choeurs Raymond Saint-Paul, Jules Gressier
Klassiek - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1952
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphonie No. 5, Op. 67 (Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Igor Markevitch
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Kálmán: Princesse Czardas - Lehár: Paganini (Short Version, Mono Version)
Orchestre Lamoureux, Raymond Chevreux
Klassiek - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo