Exploration and Creativity

“With Alain Altinoglu, La Monnaie has found its Messiah.” (Le Figaro)

In his third season as Music Director of Brussels’s Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Alain Altinoglu continues to earn rave reviews for his intense yet refined performances. Productions that Altinoglu conducts in the 2018/19 include Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale”, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Tsar Saltan” as well as Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde”. Furthermore, the Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie and Alain Altinoglu will embark on a Beethoven cycle throughout the season, juxtaposing all nine symphonies with world premieres of new works, specifically commissioned by La Monnaie for this occasion.

Alain Altinoglu regularly conducts such distinguished orchestras as the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Berliner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Wiener Philharmoniker, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich as well as all the major Parisian orchestras.

Highlights of his 2018/19 season included Altinoglu’s debut at the BBC Proms with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted the Wiener Philharmoniker at the prestigious Musikverein, gave debuts with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln as well as Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and returned to the Cleveland Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Wiener Symphoniker as well as on tour throughout Europe with the Russian National Orchestra as well as Orchestre National de France. In opera, Altinoglu took on a new David McVicar production of Berlioz’s monumental opera “Les Troyens” at the Wiener Staatsoper.

A regular guest at the world’s leading opera houses, Altinoglu appears at Metropolitan Opera New York, Royal Opera House London Covent Garden, the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Wiener Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Bayerische Staatsoper München and all three opera houses in Paris. He has also appeared at the festivals in Bayreuth, Salzburg, Orange and Aix-en-Provence.

Alongside his conducting, Altinoglu maintains a strong affinity and command over the Lied repertoire. Regularly accompanying mezzo-soprano Nora Gubisch, their most recent recording for Naïve includes folk songs by de Falla, Obradors, Granados, Berio and Brahms. Other recordings together have included a disc of songs by Henri Duparc (Cascavelle) and Maurice Ravel (Naïve). Altinoglu recorded arias with Piotr Beczala for Deutsche Grammophon. Past releases include Lalo’s Fiesque with the Orchestre National de Montpellier and Roberto Alagna (DG) and Liszt’s Piano Concertos with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (PentaTone). DVD recordings include Honegger’s “Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher” (Accord) in 2007 and a recording of Wagner’s “Der fliegende Holländer” (DG) in 2015.

Born in Paris, Alain Altinoglu studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he now teaches the conducting class.

Swiss-and-French flautist Emmanuel Pahud began studying music at the age of six.  He graduated in 1990 with the 1er Prix from the Paris Conservatoire, and went on studying with Aurèle Nicolet. He won 1st Prize at the Duino, Kobe and Geneva Competitions, and at age 22 Emmanuel joined the Berliner Philharmoniker as Principal Flute under Claudio Abbado, a position which he still holds today. In addition, he enjoys an extensive international career as soloist and chamber musician.

Emmanuel appears regularly at leading concert series, festivals and orchestras worldwide, and has collaborated as a soloist with top conductors such as Abbado, Antonini, Barenboim, Boulez, Fischer, Gergiev, Gardiner, Harding, Järvi, Maazel, Nezet-Séguin, Orozco-Estrada, Perlman, Pinnock, Rattle, Rostropovich, Zinman.

Emmanuel is a dedicated chamber musician and regularly gives recitals with pianists Eric Le Sage, Alessio Bax, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud, Stephen Kovacevich, as well as jazzing with Jacky Terrasson.  In 1993, Emmanuel founded the Summer Music Festival in Salon de Provence together with Eric Le Sage and Paul Meyer, which is still a unique chamber music festival today. He also continues chamber music performances and recordings with “Les Vents Français” with top wind players François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Gilbert Audin and Radovan Vlatkovic.

He is committed to expanding the flute repertoire and commissions new flute works every year to composers such as Elliott Carter, Marc-André Dalbavie, Thierry Escaich, Simon Holt, Toshio Hosokawa, Michaël Jarrell, Luca Lombardi, Philippe Manoury, Matthias Pintscher, Christian Rivet.

Since 1996 Emmanuel records exclusively for EMI / Warner Classics, one of the most significant contributions to recorded flute music: more than 25 recordings which all have received unanimous critical acclaim and winning awards.

Emmanuel was honoured to receive the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to music, and is HonRAM of the Royal Academy of Music. He also is an Ambassador for Unicef.