Emmanuel Pahud, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Jonathan Nott, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Duncan Ward, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Kazuki Yamada - Montalbetti: Orchestral Pictures (2025) [Hi-Res]

By 2014 Éric Montalbetti had amassed 20 years of experience as Artistic Director of the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, all the while he had also been composing, something he had been engaged in since childhood: an activity he did not publicly reveal until 2015. Conscious of the heritage of Debussy and Messiaen (‘my very first heroes’) as well as skilled in the serialism of Boulez – whose teaching courses he attended at the Collège de France – and fascinated by the sonic nuances of spectral music, Éric Montalbetti seeks a point of convergence, a possible synthesis enabling him to blend modality and serialism, without rejecting the harmonic contours of composers such as Murail. This new album dedicated to Montalbetti’s work includes a Flute Concerto, whose commission was encouraged by Emmanuel Pahud: its telling title is Memento vivere (Remember that you must live).