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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Concert du 25 octobre 1960
Manuel Rosenthal and A. Focheux
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ina, musique(s) am 15.04.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonie Fantastique-L'apprenti sorcier
Manuel Rosenthal, Louis Fourestier, Orchestre Des Cento Soli, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Division Decca Records France am 01.01.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: La mer & Nocturnes (Mono Version)
Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris, Manuel Rosenthal
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Airs célèbres d'opéras (Mono Version)
Jacqueline Brumaire, Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris, Manuel Rosenthal
Klassik - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovski: Symphonie 6 "Pathétique"-Capriccio italien
Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rudolf Albert, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris, Manuel Rosenthal
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Division Decca Records France am 01.01.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: La valse & Valses nobles et sentimentales (Mono Version)
Manuel Rosenthal, Paris Opera Orchestra
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Lyrinx Archives (1958·61·75) Zino Francescatti, New York, Dec. 16, 1975: The Last Performance
Zino Francescatti, New York Philharmonic, Pierre Boulez, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Manuel Rosenthal
Instrumentalmusik - Erschienen bei Lyrinx am 16.12.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
De Falla: El Amor Brujo / El Sombrero de Tres Picos
Manuel Rosenthal, Orquesta del Teatro Nacional de la Ópera de París
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei MARFER am 08.05.1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rosenthal: Offenbachiana (Mono Version)
Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris, Manuel Rosenthal
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Albéniz: Iberia - de Falla: Le tricorne (Mono Version)
Manuel Rosenthal, Théâtre national de l'Opéra de Paris
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Les Caprices de Marianne
Gesamtaufnahmen von Opern - Erschienen bei Solstice am 01.09.1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rosenthal, Offenbach: Gaîté parisienne (Mono Version)
Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Manuel Rosenthal
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: La valse, Alborada del Gracioso & Ma mère l'Oye (Mono Version)
Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris, Manuel Rosenthal
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: L'œuvre symphonique intégral, vol. 2 (Mono Version)
Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris, Manuel Rosenthal
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: L'œuvre symphonique intégral, vol. 4 (Mono Version)
Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris, Manuel Rosenthal
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Tosca (French Version, Mono Version)
Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris, Manuel Rosenthal, Jane Rhodes, Albert Lance
Klassik - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Orchestre Philharmonique de la RTF - Manuel Rosenthal
Gesamtaufnahmen von Opern - Erschienen bei INA Mémoire vive am 07.02.2012
16-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Désormière, J. Strauss II: Le beau Danube, musique de ballet (Mono Version)
Manuel Rosenthal, Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: L'œuvre symphonique intégral, Vol. 3 (Mono Version)
Klassik - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: La mer & Jeux (Mono Version)
Manuel Rosenthal, Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Orchestral Works (Mono Version)
Manuel Rosenthal, Orchestre du Theatre National De L'Opera De Paris
Verschiedenes - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo