Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne

Founded in 1942 by violinist Victor Desarzens, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (OCL) has continued to spread its wings to become one of Europe's most sought-after chamber phalanges. The nomination of one of the most promising young chefs of the new generation, Joshua Weilerstein from the United States, in 2015, is proof of this. With a training of Mannheim (about forty instrumentalists), he embraces a vast repertoire ranging from early baroque to contemporary creation. Quickly invited abroad - he participated in the Festival of Aix-en-Provence from the second edition, his tours in Germany and the United States are resounding successes, as his most recent concerts at the Champs-Elysees Theater, Vienna Musikverein or London BBC Proms. Recent invitations include the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Rostropovich Festival and the Istanbul Film Festival. Her concerts are punctuated by the engagement of prominent soloists: from Clara Haskil, Alfred Cortot, Walter Gieseking and Edwin Fischer to Murray Perahia, Radu Lupu, Martha Argerich and Nikolai Lugansky from pianists, from Arthur Grumiaux to Frank Peter Zimmermann among violinists, from Paul Tortelier to Truls Mørk among cellists, or from Jean-Pierre Rampal to Emmanuel Pahud among flutists, the biggest names have given him their support and continue to trust him more than ever. The OCL has also always attracted the most interesting baguettes of the moment: from Günter Wand to Charles Dutoit, from Paul Hindemith to Ton Koopman, from Jeffrey Tate to Bertrand de Billy (current principal guest conductor), he gets rich under their direction of the most diverse influences. Like the record, which offers a perennial mirror of this spirit of openness: from the complete opera of Haydn in the years 1970-1980 under the direction of Antal Dorati to the concertos of Beethoven with Christian Zacharias (who come to release on DVD at Bel Air Media), through recent prints at Alpha dedicated to Schönberg and Webern (with Heinz Holliger) and Spohr (with Paul Meyer), thanks to a new collaboration with Outhere Music, the Showcase is attractive and perfectly in tune with the historical identity of the OCL. The first record under the direction of Joshua Weilerstein will be dedicated to Stravinsky, forthcoming from MDG. A resident of the Salle Métropole, an ideal setting in the center of Lausanne, the OCL is the regular guest of the Opéra de Lausanne pit and the privileged partner of many institutions in the region such as the Lausanne University of Music, the Stravinski Auditorium in Montreux, the Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Martigny, the Avenches Opera Festival and the Clara Haskil Piano Competition in Vevey. He is also a long-time partner of Radio Télévision Suisse, whose programs he has been providing since the beginning, and in return benefits from his extensive network of national and European broadcasters. This is how his concerts, recorded by Espace 2, are available to listeners on demand at www.espace2.ch. A phalanx of the rank of the OCL, it is of course posters with names of soloists and prestigious guest conductors, but it is first of all a strong identity forged over the years by a small number of artistic directors. The founder Victor Desarzens (1942-1973), who marks the institution with his indefatigable commitment to the Swiss creators (Frank Martin in the lead) succeed Armin Jordan (1973-1985), who by the records (at Philips and Erato) accentuates considerably the international influence of the orchestra, then Lawrence Foster (1985-1990), Jesus López Cobos (1990-2000), Christian Zacharias (2000-2013) with an exceptional complete concertos for piano of Mozart at MDG, to arrive in 2015 to Joshua Weilerstein, who from the outset declares his intention to continue the work of his predecessors while enrolling the OCL in the 21st century, through bold programs or the more effective exploitation of new means of communication.