Manuel Rosenthal
Manuel Rosenthal's life overlapped pretty near perfectly with the arrival and passing of the twentieth century. He was born in 1904, the illegitimate son of a Russian immigrant woman and a wealthy Frenchman whose name he never knew, and grew up in dire poverty in Paris. He loved music sufficiently to teach himself the violin, and when his stepfather passed away in 1918, the 14 year old proved good enough on the instrument to support his mother and sister, playing in cafés and accompanying silent films. He enrolled in the Paris Conservatory at 16 to formalize his musical knowledge, but he was so far along that he was already manifesting talent as a composer. A sonatina that he submitted in 1921 not only passed muster with a committee that included Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, and Prokofiev, but received a public performance two months later. In addition to the violin, he also took up the sursoprano, a stringed instrument 1/4 higher than the violin, for which he wrote music.
In 1926, he became only the third student ever taken on by Maurice Ravel. It was through Ravel's efforts in securing a concert performance for one of his works that Rosenthal made his debut as a conductor. Never having studied conducting, and not even knowing how a traditional orchestra was arranged, Rosenthal led the performance on instinct. He was impressive enough at that engagement to receive encouragement -- and, eventually, an assistant's post -- from Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, the conductor of the Orchestre National de France, in 1934.
Rosenthal was later selected to direct a radio orchestra, a post through which he became one of the nation's leading exponents of modern music. He continued to compose, primarily for the theater and occasionally for film. In 1938, he inherited a commission originally intended for Roger Desormiere, to orchestrate Offenbach's music into a full-length ballet for choreographer Léonide Massine. The latter initially rejected Rosenthal's work and the impasse was broken when Stravinsky was called in to mediate and praised the piece. The resulting ballet, the Gaîté Parisienne, went on not only to become one of the most popular ballets of the twentieth century, but also the vehicle by which millions of listeners were introduced to Offenbach's music.
Rosenthal's spent most of the Second World War as a prisoner of war. He resumed his work in 1946 and, for the next several decades was mostly known as a concert conductor. Rosenthal made very few recordings because he objected to the notion that technological limitations should alter a piece of music. Thus, his recorded legacy is limited to a few sides for EMI and Remington in the early '50s, several done for the Ades label at the end of that decade, and in the late '90s for Naxos. Rosenthal enjoyed decades as an elder statesman of French music, and on his death in 2003, just days before his 99th birthday, he was among the last links with the world of ballet and the concert hall of the 1920s and 1930s.
© TiVo
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Debussy: Orchestral Works (Mono Version)
Manuel Rosenthal, Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: La damoiselle élue & Noël des enfants qui n'ont plus de maisons - Caplet: Messe (Stereo Version)
Maîtrise De La Radiodiffusion Française, Manuel Rosenthal, Anne-Marie Blanzat
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Georges Bizet: Les Pecheurs De Perles
Choeurs De La Radio-Lyrique De La Rtf, Orchestre de la Radio-Lyrique de la RTF, Manuel Rosenthal
Classical - Released by Cantus Classics on 1 Jan 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas: Le songe d'une nuit d'ete
Choeurs Radio-Lyrique De Paris, Orchestre Radio-Lyrique De Paris, Manuel Rosenthal
Classical - Released by Cantus Classics on 7 May 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms, Debussy, Delage, Duruflé (Live du 24/01/1955)
Orchestre national de la RTF and Manuel Rosenthal featuring Lelia Gousseau
Symphonic Music - Released by Ina, musique(s) on 3 Aug 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
L'Heure espagnole (Intégrale)
Classical - Released by INA Mémoire vive on 1 Sep 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concert de l' Orchestre national de la RTF du 29 mars 1960
Manuel Rosenthal and Orchestre national de la RTF
Classical - Released by Ina, musique(s) on 28 Mar 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cherubini : Symphonie en ré majeur - Capdevielle : Tragédie de Pérégrinos (12 Mars 1953)
Orchestre National de la RTF - Manuel Rosenthal
Classical - Released by Ina, musique(s) on 3 Feb 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel-Daphnis et Chloé
Manuel Rosenthal, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris, René Alix, Chœurs de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision française
Classical - Released by Universal Music Division Decca Records France on 1 Jan 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Orchestral Music of Eric Satie - The Selection
French National Radio & Television Orchestra, Manuel Rosenthal
Classical - Released by Vintage Jukebox on 1 Jun 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ibert, J.: Concertino Da Camera / Debussy, C.: Rapsodie / Premiere Rapsodie / Roussel, A.: Joueurs De Flute (Mule, Lancelot, Rampal) (1953, 1956)
Marcel Mule, Jacques Lancelot, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Paris Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Veyron-Lacroix, Manuel Rosenthal
Concertos - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rosenthal, Offenbach: Gaîté parisienne (Mono Version)
Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Manuel Rosenthal
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Manuel Rosenthal: Le Rayon des Soieries (1956)
Classical - Released by Classical Moments on 26 Mar 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
En Habit de Cheval
French National Radio & Television Orchestra, Manuel Rosenthal
Classical - Released by ISIS on 17 Sep 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo