Less than a million viewers. This is the disappointing audience achieved by the Victoires de la Musique Classique last year. This, despite a ceremony which did not lack attraction. Let’s hope that this 2024 edition will have a happier hand. She deserves it. Both for the list of nominated talents, which give pride of place to the excellence of our French musical youth, and for the announced program.
With Rossini opening, still choreographed by Mehdi Kerkouche (who last year gave us a tasty entry on Rameau’s Dance of the Savages from Indes galantes), but directed by one of his most brilliant – and young – specialists: chef Michele Spotti. The new musical director of the Marseille Opera, a regular at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, will be in charge of the evening, this time at the podium of the Montpellier National Orchestra – from where the ceremony is broadcast. He is responsible for accompanying nominees and guests throughout the show.
Among the latter, pianist Anna Fedorova in an extract from Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto. Britain’s star cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, in a Song of Birds by Casals, which, fifty years after his death, still sounds like an ode to peace. Ermonela Jaho in the essential Vissi d’arte (Puccini year obliges). Without forgetting our national glories Karine Deshayes and Florian Sempey, in the duo of Rosine and Figaro from The Barber of Seville…
As for nominations, we will naturally be watching for the lucky ones elected in the key categories which are lyrical artist and instrumental soloist of the year. Will the French flute school, represented by Mathilde Calderini, offer itself a third Victory after Jean-Pierre Rampal in 1992 or Emmanuel Pahud in 1998? Will the guitar transform the test with Thibault Cauvin after the Garcia revelation five years ago? Or will the piano once again win the votes by crowning the irresistible rise of the former winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition, Alexander Kantorow? On the lyrical artist side, will Adèle Charvet’s all-terrain mezzo allow her to win (finally!) her first Victory, against a Benjamin Bernheim or a Lea Desandre who have already been rewarded in the past?
But it is of course among the revelations that the main surprises should come. If we were to make our own predictions, we would happily single out Lauranne Oliva among the singers: her dazzling performances at the start of the season at the Voix nouvelles competition and at the Paris Opera Competition had everyone in agreement. As for conductor revelations, we would definitely see Chartraine – and ex-tennis champion! – Marie Jacquot wins the grand slam, after her recent appointments at the Copenhagen Opera and on Cologne radio. On the other hand, we don’t know who to bet on for the instrumental soloists: if Salomé Gasselin does indeed belong to this fervent generation of children from Tous les matins du monde who are putting the viola da gamba back in the spotlight, the violinist Élise Bertrand embodies brilliantly the revival of performer-composers, and the pianist Nour Ayadi, a complete artist coupled with a rather incredible sense of narration… The games are open.
