Nathalie Stutzmann headlines the September issue of Gramophone Magazine! This article dives into her backstory and the upcoming album release of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” and American Suite with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which will be released by Warner Classics & Erato on August 30.
Warner Classics & Erato signs exclusive contract with conductor Nathalie Stutzmann. Her first recording will be a Dvorak album with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to be released worldwide in August 2024.
“It is an immense joy and honour to join the legendary label Warner Classics and sign an exclusive contract as a conductor. I have a long and rich history of collaboration with this amazing group of people, who love the artists they work with and create a family atmosphere. They are led by Alain Lanceron, whom I thank dearly for his support and truthfulness.” says Stutzmann.
“It is a dream come true to work with a team that understands and respects the necessity for an artist to have the artistic freedom to create a true musical world, and to record works of immense beauty with my favourite orchestras in the world. Music is an eternal source of emotion and must be shared with the world as the best form of spiritual communication with the unknown and the meaning of life.”
Read full announcement at this link.
Join Nathalie Stutzmann on a fascinating journey in Paris and don’t miss out on discovering the secrets of Ravel’s ballet version of Bolero! A documentary by Hilan Warshaw with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Nathalie Stutzmann has won the prestigious “Best Conductor of the Year” Oper Award last night for her Bayreuth debut with Wagner’s Tannhäuser.
Oper stated: “Anyone who grows up as the child of opera singers, plays the piano, cello and bassoon and then also has an extraordinary instrument in their voice, has supposedly already had enough of God’s gifts. But anyone who hears so many voices singing within them and loves music in all its forms is also destined to conduct. For her outstanding debut on the podium of the Festival Orchestra with Richard Wagner’s energetic Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival 2023, there’s the OPER!”
“Nathalie Stutzmann has the Bayreuth gene” Oper Magazin
“I had never experienced such a standing ovation at a pit debut in Bayreuth” BR-Klassik
“No one is surprised that Nathalie Stutzmann is making such a sensational Bayreuth conducting debut. (…) You can safely call it a miracle” Süddeutsche Zeitung
“With Stutzmann on the podium, the festival orchestra literally breathes together with the voice” Neue Zürcher Zeitung
“She had the special acoustics in the Festspielhaus well under control right from her debut” Die Welt
“Nathalie Stutzmann received a triumphant welcome” Forum Opéra
“Nathalie Stutzmann gave a masterly performance” Bachtrack
“Such a debut has not been experienced here for a long time” Münchner Merkur
See the full press reviews at this link.
Above video: Nathalie Stutzmann talks about her experience in Bayreuth conducting Wagner’s Tannhäuser in the summer 2023 and reacts to her portrait in the famous conductors hall of fame alongside Fürtwangler, Knappertsbusch, Solti, Böhm and Thielemann, among others.
Nathalie Stutzmann is awarded Opus Klassik 2023 “Concert Recording of the year” with Xavier de Maistre and WDR Sinfonieorchester for their recording of Mosolov and Glière’s harp concertos, released in September 2022 on Sony Classical. The award ceremony will take place at Konzerthaus Berlin on 8 October 2023.
Critics are praising Nathalie’s performances at The Metropolitan Opera in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte!
“Stutzmann is making a splashy Met debut” The New York Times
“Nathalie Stutzmann in an impressive Met debut makes Don Giovanni a must-see” Observer
“Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann made her Met debut in a musically excellent Don Giovanni” Financial Times
“The great winner of the evening is undoubtedly Nathalie Stutzmann” Forum Opéra
“Nathalie Stutzmann was as much the star of the show as Mattei” Music OMH
“A great overall musical performance opening night, one of the best one has heard in this opera” New York Classical Review
“Hurrah for Stutzmann’s debut” Broadway World
“Nathalie Stutzmann delivered [in Die Zauberflöte] another tremendous performance from the pit” Operawire
“Stutzmann conducted this opera’s magical score with brisk but flexible tempi and the Met Orchestra musicians responded superbly” Bachtrack
“Stutzmann literally and figuratively gave the performance the right tone. Her debut at the Met as a conductor is impressive” Place de l’Opera
“She should get a medal for making auteurs sound as good as they do” Vulture
See the full press reviews at this link.
Photo: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera
Nathalie Stutzmann’s first recording as Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, featuring pianist Haochen Zhang in Beethoven’s complete Piano Concertos, is released today under BIS Records:
“Together, Zhang and Stutzmann’s Beethoven is at once stylistically assured and not quite like any other. (…) one might well ask what we’ve done to deserve yet another brilliant collaboration in the Beethoven concertos. Yet Zhang/Stutzmann/Philadelphia is precisely that, and I urge you to not miss it.”
Gramophone
“The Philadelphia Orchestra’s playing is also uniformly excellent. Listen to how beautifully Stutzmann shapes the opening exposition of the first concerto, distilling an atmosphere of excited expectation. Zhang’s perfectly realizes Beethoven’s unexpectedly genial response, though the ease with which he tosses off the following deluge of rapid passagework is mightily impressive. The entire movement has a lightness that sounds fresh and newly minted. The slow movement has more introverted, played with a beguiling lyricism by Zheng and the orchestra, while the final movement returns us to the playful high spirits of the first. A similar joy de vivre is found in the second concerto, and both performances are definite highlights of the set.”
The Classical Review
“To both honor the score and imbue it with individuality and a genuine point of view is no easy task, yet Zhang’s enlivening pianism and Stutzmann’s stimulating leadership work wonders throughout these reference-worthy performances. Enthusiastically recommended.”
Classics Today