West of Paris, beyond the 16e Arrondissement, as the Seine winds its way downriver towards Saint-Cloud and the Bois de Boulogne, one finds the Île Seguin. Formerly the site of a huge Renault factory (for years the largest factory in France), the island was redeveloped in the 2010s. On its downstream side it now boasts one of the most scenic – and state-of-the-art – concert venues in the country: La Seine Musicale.
Opening in 2017, La Seine Musicale looks like a huge neo-modernist Fabergé egg. The resident orchestra is also a modernist newcomer: Insula orchestra, founded by conductor Laurence Equilbey in 2012. The group is in fact a period instrument ensemble – but its artistic ethos is decidedly crisp and up-to-the-minute. Musicians are experts in their field, playing either original instruments or careful reconstructions. Performances are meticulously researched. And while performances in the 18th century could be shaky and under-rehearsed (the rehearsal mark was only invented in the 1820s), Insula orchestra are anything but. Their playing is brisk, resolute – and completely contemporary.
At the end of September, Insula orchestra presents their first concert of the new season with Lucas Debargue performing Chopin’s First Piano Concerto – one of several Chopin wrote before departing Poland for France in 1830. This is paired with a work of similarly serious emotional tenor, Schumann’s Symphony no. 4 in D minor, completed around ten years later.
However, Insula’s later concerts present a kaleidoscope of moods. In December, Equilbey leads selections of classic music known from cinema, including Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Purcell. Then in January, Peter Dijsktra joins the orchestra to conduct a programme of fin de siècle works – Debussy, Satie, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Schoenberg – inspired by Van Gogh and Klimt. And later still in January, Andrea Marcon presents a fascinating programme drawing connections between early Beethoven and the revolutionary (and still under-appreciated) CPE Bach, together with a rare work from the “Swedish Mozart”, Joseph Martin Kraus.
In the spring, Equilbey returns, together with David Fray, for Emilie Mayer’s Piano Concerto, a stylish work by a prolific composer (she wrote 8 symphonies and 15 concert overtures) receiving a welcome revival of interest in recent years. (Mayer is paired on this occasion with Schubert’s resplendent “Great” C major Symphony.) Then in May comes what must be the highlight of Insula’s 2024–25 season: a specially staged performance of Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, an oratorio based on stories from Persian mythology, one of Schumann’s finest and most ambitious works. Director Daniela Kerck and videographer Astrid Steiner join to revive this rarely heard gem of German Romanticism.
But it’s not always German-accented works to be found in the classical season at La Seine Musicale – far from it. Shortly afterward in May, Cappella Mediterranea and Leonardo García Alarcón arrive to present selections from Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, with choreography by Bintou Dembélé inspired by French hip-hop. Insula orchestra’s last concert of the season is also decidedly Francophone, featuring works by Bizet, Massenet and Theodore Dubois.
Many other guest ensembles make appearances in the classical season at La Seine Musicale. In October, Robin Ticciati conducts the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in Sibelius’ Second Symphony, programmed alongside Elgar’s Violin Concerto performed by Vilde Frang – among the most challenging in the repertoire. Other period ensembles are drawn to La Seine Musicale too: in November, Prague-based Collegium 1704 and conductor Václav Luks present famed Bohemian composer Jan Zelenka’s Miserere, paired with Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, signalling Mozart’s strong connections to the Czech lands.
The Wrocław Baroque Orchestra also make an appearance this season, with a programme in January including Chopin and another luminary of Polish music, Stanisław Moniuszko – regarded as the father of opera in the Polish language (he wrote at least 23). Concentus Musicus Wien, the Viennese period instrument ensemble, perform shortly afterward in February, with a classic all-Viennese programme of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and Haydn’s Drumroll Symphony.
English Baroque music is represented too, with the appearance of Ensemble Il Caravaggio, conducted by Camille Delaforge, with a programme including Purcell’s anthem Saul and the Witch of Endor, before transitioning back to French Baroque with Charpentier’s exquisite motet Le Reniement de St Pierre. And Italian Baroque, in the form of works by Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi and Nicola Matteis, is presented by L’Arpeggiata led from the theorbo by Christina Pluhar: a programme of maximum Neapolitan heat.
If all this Baroque-era recovery feels a little bit recherché, do not fear. Concerts charting more familiar ground are also available. In March, famed violin virtuoso Gil Shaham makes an appearance with the NDR Radiophilharmonie for Brahms’ well-loved Violin Concerto, and shortly afterward François-Frédéric Guy arrives for a solo recital of Brahms and Beethoven sonatas – including Beethoven’s Waldstein and Moonlight, both loved to death by pianists the world over.
See listings of upcoming events at La Seine Musicale.
This article was sponsored by Insula orchestra / La Seine Musicale.
