Orchestre National de France, Cristian Măcelaru - Barraine: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 "Voïna", Song-Koï & Les Tziganes (2026) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Song-Koï: I. La source
02. Song-Koï: II. La haute plaine
03. Song-Koï: III. Les chemins célestes
04. Song-Koï: IV. La ville de Son-Phong
05. Song-Koï: V. Le retour des pavillons noirs
06. Song-Koï: VI. La rivière Noire
07. Song-Koï: VII. Le fleuve Rouge reçoit la rivière Noire
08. Song-Koï: VIII. L’arrivée à la mer et la mort
09. Symphony No. 1: I. Andante - Vivace
10. Symphony No. 1: II. Adagio - Vivace
11. Symphony No. 1: III. Finale. Adagio - Allegro giocoso e leggiero
12. Symphony No. 2 Voïna: I. Adagio - Allegro moderato
13. Symphony No. 2 Voïna: II. Marche funèbre. Lento
14. Symphony No. 2 Voïna: III. Finale. Allegretto
15. Les Tziganes

Prix de Rome winner, conservatory professor, political activist: the life of composer Elsa Barraine is as exciting and varied as her music. The Orchestre National de France and its music director Cristian Măcelaru have set themselves the task of giving this committed voice of French music history the space she deserves. Their new album presents symphonic masterpieces by Elsa Barraine: a fighter not only for the arts, who trained alongside Olivier Messiaen and actively resisted the German occupiers during the Second World War as a co-founder of the Front national des musiciens.

Barraine's political commitment is also reflected in the recorded works. The early Symphony No. 1, composed while she was still on a scholarship in Italy, was followed in 1938 by the Symphony No. 2, a piece of impressive energy whose epithet Voïna (Russian for war) resembles a declaration of war. As a tribute to Vietnam's independence in 1945, the cycle Song-Koï (Le Fleuve rouge) contains a symphonic portrait of the Red River and tells of the geographical and cultural stations it passes through on its way through the previously French-colonized country. The fact that Elsa Barraine, the daughter of a Jewish father who herself belonged to a persecuted minority during the Nazi era, also championed the culture of the Sinti and Roma with her music is shown at the end of this album full of discoveries by the 1959 tone painting Les Tziganes.

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