“Florent Schmitt”, Alain Altinoglu | The duty

Is this a sign of a problem when “the” conductor whose orchestral releases of French music are now expected is a musician who, until five or six years ago, only conducted opera? Certainly, Alain Altinoglu is one of the most interesting conductors on the planet, but that says a lot about a collective resignation of three decades (and we will put the OSM, the Orchester de Paris, the National de France, the Boston Symphony and French-speaking Switzerland in the same bag), on a lack of foresight on the part of publishers with regard to the emergence of eminent conductors such as Stéphane Denève, who should have taken over from Dutoit and Plasson, or even a contempt for repertoire (editors, artistic directors and conductors), with the notable exception of Naxos, to whom we owe some valuable CDs with Jean-Luc Tingaud. The “French lesson” therefore comes to us here, like the sausages, from Frankfurt. It’s globalization (or Europe) and since this lesson is intense, fervent, sensual and essential from a repertoire point of view, we simply say: “Thank you! »

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