As the calendar pages turn to a vibrant summer of 2025, the Orchestre National de France gears up to captivate audiences with an array of illustrious performances. Showcasing a diverse spectrum of musical heritage, the events include a blend of legendary compositions and contemporary flair. From the light-hearted comedy of Strauss' 'The Knight of the Rose' to the disciplined brilliance of Mozart’s 'Jupiter Symphony', and the poignant expressions of Schubert’s 'Unfinished Symphony', these concerts promise a remarkable journey through sound. Join us as we explore the highlights, artists, and the indelible experiences they offer.

A Harmonious Celebration: Orchestrating Music Magic with the Orchestre National de France

Join the Orchestre National de France as they celebrate the timeless works of musical geniuses over a series of enthralling events. From Bizet’s emotive symphonies to Ravel’s evocative compositions, each performance promises to captivate audiences with its unique interpretation and artistry. With celebrated conductors and soloists, these concerts will take place in iconic venues across Europe, offering a rich cultural experience that bridges historical music with contemporary moments.

Celebrating Musical Masterpieces: A Journey with the Orchestre National de France

How, at the same time, with similar and equally extensive means, can we bring to life in turn a cheerful pastoral and one of the darkest tales? Miracles of the orchestra! Exact contemporaries, Gabriel Pierné and Richard Strauss invite us, one, to relive a comedy-ballet under Louis XV, the other to combat the surge of occult powers ( The Woman Without a Shadow , presented in the form of a rare instrumental suite). All this between a detour to Mussorgsky's Bald Mountain and the sparks of a new flute concerto written for Emmanuel Pahud.

The Woman Without a Shadow Pahud / Gabel

Maison de la Radio et de la Musique

Welcome to Rome, where your guide will be Milanese Daniele Gatti. Admire, on your left, Berlioz sketching a multicolored Carnival, with themes taken from his opera Benvenuto Cellini . A little further on, see Mendelssohn moved by landscapes, ruins and nature in his " Italian " Symphony. Finally, linger at the Villa Borghese and the Trevi Fountain, thanks to Respighi's Pines and Fountains , odes to the Eternal City and small treatises of orchestral flavor. Grazie mille , National Orchestra.

Roman Carnival / Daniele Gatti

Getting up on a Sunday and enjoying Bach is the guarantee of a week that starts well. The musicians of the National are reunited with harpsichordist Jeanne Jourquin for the second part of their complete Brandenburg Concertos, which they began two seasons ago. We enjoy the Third and its false airs of Vivaldi, the Fourth , a violin concerto dotted with unexpected dialogues with the flutes, and the Sixth and last, a sublimation and quintessence of the concerto grosso .

National Sundays / Bach, Brandenburger

EPSG:4326

National Orchestra of France Tour in the United States

LIU Post

Carnegie Hall

Mechanics Hall

A stunning cadenza opens Saint-Saëns's Second Concerto , like a wild, improvised gesture that spans the entire keyboard—and that's just the beginning. Liszt congratulated Saint-Saëns on this brilliant piece, "beginning with Bach and ending with Offenbach," one listener enthused. "The concerto solo is a role that must be conceived and rendered like a dramatic character," Saint-Saëns confided. Marie-Ange Nguci makes it her own, before the tragedy and panache of Beethoven's Eroica .

Beethoven, “Heroic Symphony” / Nguci / Măcelaru

Tackling Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto is like crossing the Olympus of the violin. Yet it's not just about flitting around it, but about making the lines sing, finding the right tone between reason and feeling. American Randall Goosby, 27, has already made it one of his hobbyhorses, and we'll be watching closely for his first steps on Radio France. For the occasion, it was necessary to summon "Levre du Jour" from Daphnis et Chloé and this new 20th-century classic, Elsa Barraine's Symphony No. 2 , rediscovered by the National and its conductor.

Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto / Randall Goosby

Cité de la Musique

A monstrous dog has been wreaking havoc in an English county for decades. Until the day Doctor Watson and his friend, detective Sherlock Holmes, decide to investigate. Laure Grandbesançon has concocted her own unique adaptation of several famous episodes from the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, performed alongside her by musicians from the Orchestre National de France. A new story from the Frissons collection, the amusingly disturbing podcast from France Inter. Elementary, my dear Laure!

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Vienna, its life, its work. Let us recognize, on the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth, that Johann Strauss Jr. alone encapsulates the spirit of the city. His younger brother, Josef, does the same in his own way, whose polka-mazurka, The Dragonfly, confirms what a genius he would have been had he renounced his first profession. After the trumpets and Magyar arches of Von Suppé's very brassy Light Cavalry , Korngold's Violin Concerto conjures up the disenchanted Vienna of Yesterday's World. Two cities, two atmospheres.

Gala Johann Strauss / Dueñas / Honeck

Life and its intoxication, the afterlife and its promises. Where Richard Strauss dispenses with words, better throwing them into two flamboyant symphonic poems, Gustav Mahler uses five poems by Friedrich Rückert to depict joy, love, heartbreak, and farewell to the world—these five lieder were one of the great successes of his career. The melodies of Alma, his beloved wife, are a curiosity, and it's a priceless gift to hear mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, a voice charged with all the nuances of the times.

Mahler, Rückert-Lieder / Joyce DiDonato

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées

The Grand Tour, Joyce DiDonato: Dijon

Dijon Opera

From a dream a queen had while sewing, Snow White is born, "as white as snow, as red as blood, as black in hair as the ebony window." Snow, blood, hair: the opening motif of the famous tale will be transformed into a series of trials for the young girl. With as much terror as lightness and mischief, this new version of Snow White will take us through the forest full of brambles, into the dwarves' cottage, into the secret chamber where a cruel stepmother makes her poisons... Three colors, a handful of spells, and a thousand melodies when it is the National Orchestra of France that revisits Grimm.

Snow White & Spells

Valmiki, after a life spent in poverty and self-forgetfulness, found himself recounting to children the great story of Rama. From love to war, through exile and friendship, Rama shares his actions and the lessons he carries. Accompanied by his faithful friends, he must face the greatest trials, even to the depths of his being, and thus become the legend he is destined to be.

The Adventures of Prince Rama - Indian Legends

We must first welcome the return to Paris of the greatest violinist of her generation, Anne-Sophie Mutter, in a program that sums her up magnificently: Mozart, which she played as a child with Karajan, and a concerto very much of its time, written especially for her, which did so much for the glory of her instrument, Air , which Thomas Adès understands as a tribute to Sibelius. As a prelude and conclusion, the irresistible Romanian Rhapsodies of Enescu, a sign of the perfect communion between the National and its musical director.

Anne-Sophie Mutter Mozart / Enescu

Ravel, the true DNA of the Orchestre National de France's repertoire, especially in this year of the 150th anniversary of his birth. Between the menacing whirlwinds of La Valse slips the Piano Concerto by his friend Gershwin, to whom Maurice Ravel once urged, when he came to ask his advice: "Be yourself!" This will be the roguish touch of this French gala between Paris and New York, under the fingers of the eternally young Rudolf Buchbinder.

Tour of the National Orchestra of France in Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria: Vienna

Vienna Music Society

Tour of the National Orchestra of France in Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria: Prague

Obecní Dům

Intruders among the strings? Accomplices rather, friends for a day who share their flavor, their sweetness, their roughness perhaps: in Mozart, it is the oboe which slips between the violin, the viola and the cello, partners in a deliciously painful Adagio ; in Dvořák, the arrival of the piano within the quartet prolongs the nostalgia of the dumka, this ballad of Ukrainian origin in which his Quintet is bathed .

The Mornings of the National - Mozart / Dvořák

Tour of the National Orchestra of France in Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria: Bratislava

Ravel, a true DNA of the Orchestre National de France's repertoire, especially in this year of the 150th anniversary of his birth. Between the menacing whirlwinds of  La Valse  and an extremely rare version of the  Trio  slips the  Piano Concerto  by his friend Gershwin, to whom Maurice Ravel once urged, when he came to ask his advice: "Be yourself!" This will be the roguish touch of this  French gala  between Paris and New York, under the fingers of the eternally young Rudolf Buchbinder.

Tour of the National Orchestra of France in Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria: Bucharest

The Palace Hall

Anne-Sophie Mutter, in a program that sums her up magnificently: Mozart, which she played as a child with Karajan, and a concerto very much of its time, written especially for her, which did so much for the glory of her instrument, Air, which Thomas Adès understands as a tribute to Sibelius.

Electricity in the air. The Orchestre National de France returns with Ravel, a true DNA of its repertoire, especially in this year of the 150th anniversary of his birth. Between the menacing whirlwinds of La Valse and an extremely rare version of the Trio slips the Piano Concerto by his friend Gershwin, to whom Maurice Ravel once urged, when he came to ask his advice: "Be yourself!" This will be the roguish touch of this French gala between Paris and New York, under the fingers of the eternally young Rudolf Buchbinder.

Gershwin / Ravel - Buchbinder / Măcelaru

Ravel Festival, Saint-Jean-de-Luz

Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste

Who said the party was over? This is, in a way, the apotheosis of Radio France's musical season: under the Parisian sky, in front of thousands of spectators and millions of television viewers, the Orchestre National de France, the Choir, and the Maîtrise de Radio France celebrate music for all, accompanied by a shower of stars. Welcome to the Concert de Paris!

Paris Concert

Champ de Mars Tour Eiffel

A work of youth, another of absolute youth: if Beethoven is 34 years old at the time of this instrumental feast that is the Triple Concerto , where each soloist gives his all in his part, Bizet is exactly half his age (17 years old!) when the miracle of his Symphony in C is accomplished  ; a page full of sunshine and languid reveries, where the National shines naturally.

The Grand Tour - Lourdes

Padre Pio

Georges Bizet passed away 150 years and a few days ago, barely older than his beloved Mozart. A clear genius and cursed creator, as if killed by the myth of Carmen that precipitated his fall, he leaves an indelible mark on our heritage, an innate colorist, a magical melodist, a passionate lover of the stage. "This music seems perfect to me. It moves forward, light, supple, polished. It is amiable, it does not sweat," praised Nietzsche. The Orchestre National de France celebrates him as it should, between Giuseppe Verdi and Ambroise Thomas.

Gala Bizet / Bertrand de Billy

By silencing each instrument, one after the other, in the final movement of his Symphony No. 45 , Joseph Haydn redoubles his irony, sending an irritated message to his employer, Prince Estherazy. Mozart, master of ambiguity, moves from prayer to incandescent vocalises in his Exsultate Jubilate , while Schubert's Unfinished and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet give the evening a more somber tone. A farewell evening, marking the end of Michel Franck's term at the helm of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

Schubert, Unfinished Symphony

Summer is here. After the May 30th concert, the 125 musicians from all walks of life of Viva l'Orchestra! return to the forefront. And this Fête de la Musique is aptly named, as it honors amateur performance like no other. Lucie Leguay conducts the Orchestre des grands amateurs de Radio France and the musicians of the National who supported them during this unique adventure: come and applaud them a second time!

Viva l'Orchestra! Music Festival

The mother of symphonies, its "immortal model," said Mendelssohn: the nickname "Jupiter," chosen after Mozart's death, fired the public's imagination, fascinated from the first day by this miracle, from the vigorous appeal of the first movement to the Apollonian radiance of the last. Simone Young commands the song of grace, after having made the National's music stands shine in Éric Tanguy's new Concert for Orchestra and awakened some Mozartian memories in Shostakovich's concerto.

Mozart, “Jupiter” Symphony / Simone Young

Three headliners to sing Maria Theresa's Vienna, revisited and reinvented by Richard Strauss in a "comedy in music" that reconnects with the Mozartian ideal: Niamh O'Sullivan , Véronique Gens and Regula Mühlemann sing Octavian, the Marschallin and Sophie respectively, in a farewell symphony punctuated by the three beats of the waltz, here in the hands of the enfant terrible of opera, the Polish stage manager Krzysztof Warlikowski. Friends of Doctor Freud, get ready!

Strauss, The Knight of the Rose - Henrik Nánási

Already 11 years old! The launch of the new edition of Viva l'Orchestra is always a celebration! The 125 amateur musicians have rehearsed for many weeks with the musicians of the Orchestre National de France, and present to you the fruits of their labor and commitment with a joy that warms the heart and is a pleasure to behold. All this in a selection of the most famous and rewarding pieces from the repertoire.

Viva l'Orchestra!

It all begins with a mysterious runic manuscript indicating that an Icelandic volcano, Sneffels, is the gateway to the center of the Earth. The whimsical and impetuous Professor Octave Dubroc, an eminent specialist in geology and mineralogy, immediately decides to go and verify this astonishing revelation by taking his young assistant Axel and his niece Marguerite along for the adventure, who, faced with her uncle's sexist prejudices, knows how to impose her boldness and determination. Guided on site by Hans, a taciturn but reckless Icelandic hunter, these three characters will cross the hostile landscapes of the island before plunging into the labyrinthine galleries of the famous volcano, right into the bowels of the globe...

Odyssey to the Center of the Earth

Who was Dvořák thinking of when he enriched the traditional string quartet with a double bass? Mozart and his A Little Night Music ? Or the Bohemian orchestras, itinerant from village to village? It is true that his Second String Quintet , full of the scent of the Czech land, has no equal, with its limping dumka rhythm and the elegy of the Poco Andante . Nothing comes close either to the Bagatelles for two violins and cello, to which the somewhat awkward tones of the harmonium give a popular scent, between laughter and tears.

The Mornings of the National / Lucile Dollat

Tour of the National Orchestra of France in South Korea and China: Beijing

National Centre for the Performing Arts

Being at a concert to better travel: what could be more miraculous? Here, the three works brought together offer a supplement of elsewhere through the power of the images they summon: Bizet and the drama of Daudet's L'Arlésienne ; Mussorgsky wandering through an exhibition of paintings that Ravel revisits differently; finally, the orientalizing delirium of Saint-Saëns with his Egyptian scales in La Foi  : "the extremes touch, the ancient and the modern embrace," he explains. Fasten your seatbelts.

Pictures at an Exhibition - Cristian Măcelaru

Opening with Le Mépris , one of Georges Delerue's enduring icons, this second concert will notably highlight his links with jazz... but will also allow visitors to discover the sumptuous Philippe de Broca Suite and the one dedicated to television series, specially created for the occasion. The Dien Bien Phu Farewell Concerto is a case of a different nature: a film score conceived as a concert work. Walking the line between pain and passion, this concert piece for violin and orchestra will be Georges Delerue's swan song for French cinema.

Georges Delerue - A Giant of Cinema / Contempt

It took some thirty years after the creation of the Fifth Symphony for the phrase, the famous little phrase, to emerge, immortalized by Beethoven's first biographer. "So fate knocks at the door," the composer is said to have whispered, referring to the famous first movement. The fate of the "symphony of destiny" was sealed. Estonian Kristiina Poska has made it her own, after having the Diotima Quartet sing in a new work by Bruno Mantovani, for whom we wish the same... fate.

Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 / Mantovani / Kristiina Poska

The Viennese cycle built by Daniele Gatti closes with Brahms, a composer constantly revisited by the Italian conductor, who made him the hallmark of his first cycle when he took over the National in 2008. Time has passed, and this maturation still benefits frescoes such as the German Requiem , a sacred but not liturgical work, which Johannes Brahms described as a "human requiem." Two voices, including that of the exceptional reciter Michael Volle, join the troops.

Brahms, A German Requiem - Daniele Gatti

Vienna according to Daniele Gatti, Act II. Here we are at the sources of classicism, from the balcony of a theater. It is, between crime and punishment, the fatal overture of Don Giovanni, depicting the turpitudes of a hero who defies God; it is the alacrity, the rebound and a hundred contrasts that strike Haydn's Symphony No. 82  , one of whose themes would evoke a dancing bear – hence its nickname; and it is the synthesis of these two gentlemen that leads us to Beethoven's First Symphony .

Mozart / Haydn / Beethoven - Daniele Gatti

Who has never dreamed of splitting themselves? Of letting the other person in them speak? Robert Louis Stevenson pushed madness to the limit in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , one of those stories that we dread but love, so much do we love to scare ourselves. Laure Grandbesançon, alias Laure du crime, has concocted her own adaptation of this fantastic tale, around appropriately blood-for-blood music, performed by the musicians of the Orchestre National de France. A new story from the Frissons collection, the new and amusingly disturbing podcast from France Inter.

Chills

A farewell symphony for a return. A fervent Mahlerian, the former music director of the Orchestre National de France, Daniele Gatti, unfolds a Viennese theme over three evenings, with a first journey to the Ninth . A teeming, tumultuous, contradictory world-work, mixing all the themes through which Mahler sings and transcends life, death, the aspiration for peace and deliverance, without forgetting the sneer of the "Rondo Burleske." Berg heard in it "the expression of an exceptional love for this land."

Mahler, Symphony No. 9 - Daniele Gatti

A Berliozian by temperament, Stéphanie d'Oustrac is one of those singers whose commitment to the text is absolute. A loyal member of the Orchestre National de France this season, since she sang Marguerite from  La Damnation de Faust three days earlier, she became a melodist for this Jubilee concert, with the  Summer Nights cycle  in a version for strings. Then it was the turn of pianist Guillaume Bellom to join the soloists of the National for the very festive  Septet  by  Saint-Saëns . The  perfect setting for the 90th anniversary.

NATIONAL JUBILEE 2/5 - National Mornings

A graceful, confident tone to begin with, then a slow movement emerging from a reverie, that human voice that makes Schubert so dear and so close to us: hearing his First Trio , in the first days of spring, is a godsend. Three, then four, then five, the soloists of the National recreate the spirit of the Schubertiades by pushing on to Mendelssohn's radiant Quintet in A , under the benevolent gaze of Haydn, the father of them all.

Haydn / Mendelssohn / Schubert - Les Matins du National

Stravinsky asserts that in composing Petrushka , he had the vision of a suddenly unleashed puppet, whose diabolical stunts exasperate "the patience of the orchestra, which responds in turn with threatening fanfares." All this before the battle, the climax, and the fall. But doesn't the viola in Walton's Concerto also have the traits of a nasty little rascal, who only becomes agitated to better bounce back and ham it up? Alongside Antoine Tamestit, the French conductor Marie Jacquot, winner of the Victoires de la Musique, makes her debut at Radio France and at the head of the Orchestre National de France.

Stravinsky, Petrouchka: Massy

Cinémassy

Stravinsky, Petrushka

The Ravel anniversary closes with one of the season's guests of honor. Beatrice Rana tackles the Concerto in G major , a work of orchestral luxuriance and pianistic boldness, fast and turbulent, where the ineffable poetry of the slow movement is nevertheless what will measure the success of an interpretation. We breathe, melancholic or moved, with the Pavane and Ma Mère l'Oye , but barely have time to catch our breath because the Waltz and its fateful whirl arrive: all the genius of the geometer of mystery.

Concerto in G, The Beatrice Rana Waltz / Cristian Măcelaru

A journey through Ravel, then a departure. A return to him, but with this step aside, a different understanding. Through the voice of Laurent Stocker, and through a few carefully chosen texts and poems, the composer's silhouette becomes more familiar, we delve into his Basque roots, and rediscover his attraction to Spain and an idealized distant past. All punctuated by the vivid and distinct palette of three grandiose orchestral pieces. The magic of this concert: perfume samples unveiled throughout the evening.

Ravel, Boléro, Spanish Rhapsody - Augmented Work

For the Scheherazade of his journey, Ravel prefers, to the salon setting, a long melody that would resemble an opera scene: he wants the full spectrum of the orchestra and the accents of a spicy voice. From this fantasized Orient, we return to Spain, with the nervous and feline Rhapsody , while Sarah Nemtanu takes the floor in the formidable Tzigane . The irreplaceable Boléro , by an orchestra that has played it, replayed it and knows its smallest workings, concludes the fiesta.

Scheherazade, Gypsy, Bolero M.-N. Lemieux / S. Nemtanu

A "blonde whose divine hairdressers are goldsmiths", a flute "like a mysterious kiss": the secret voice of Maurice Ravel rises through that of the contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, in a range of melodies where his cherished themes pass through, antiquity, the dreamed Orient, childhood. The soloists of the National revisit Ma Mère l'Oye , a tale of a thousand discoveries inspired by Charles Perrault, where Ravel distils his precious sonorities. Eternal.

The National Morning Show / Marie-Nicole Lemieux

His music never leaves us, and on the occasion of his 150th anniversary, we can only rejoice to hear the works of that orchestral wizard, Ravel, brought together in five days. Music of supreme distinction, exuberant, secretive, comical, with a deadpan tone, infinite imagination, and so tender – was it not he who confided, about a mechanical bird: "I hear its heart beating"? The Orchestre National de France, his zealous servant, welcomes Alexandre Tharaud for this first evening of celebration.

Concerto for the left hand - A. Tharaud / C. Măcelaru

If a famous conductor, in his passion, christened the first of Brahms's symphonies "Beethoven's 10th", a worshipper evoked, with regard to the Second , a cousinship with the "Pastoral", while another heard, himself, the "Mozartian blood" which beat in its finale. It is no coincidence that Cornelius Meister places, at the head, the overture Leonore III of the great deaf man. Between these "two B's", Édith Canat de Chizy exalts the percussion section of the National in a concerto in her glory.

Brahms, Symphony No. 2 / Canat de Chizy, Skyline - Cornelius Meister

It's a story of shared admiration and friendship. In 1999, in preparation for his 75th birthday, Olga Neuwirth dedicated a fascinating piece inspired by Ray Bradbury to Pierre Boulez. Ecstatic, the French conductor and composer in turn conducted the music of his young colleague, who pays tribute to him today, here as a curtain-raiser. The evening's story continues, punctuated by the dazzling performance of Michaël Levinas writing for solo organ, before two French premieres by the star composer of the 2025 edition.

Tribute to Pierre Boulez

A soldier on leave returns to the village to find his mother and his fiancée. He has a violin in his bag, a small 10-franc violin. On the way, he meets the Devil, who offers to trade the violin for a book. A book that, he promises, will make him very rich...

The Soldier's Story

Secret: how do we rush from a concert to an opera stage? Entrust a text about the loss of a loved one to a proven master, for example the old and lively Haydn; and there, from tears to prayers, from threats to lamentations, emerges from a winged pen, the most pathetic air of the late 18th century. Mozart, a tender admirer of his "papa Haydn," resounds in the opening, then Thomas Hengelbrock revives a "New World" Symphony that is sure to be exhilarating.

The Grand Tour - Arcachon

Olympia Theater Arcachon

Dvořák, “New World”

Debussy and Bartók through the prism of Pierre Boulez: the centenary of the conductor and composer is a pretext for exploring two totems of 20th-century music, to which the French master brought his proverbial precision and a kind of laser-like illumination that was his trademark. A style that is not foreign to the style of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. The highlight: Le Soleil des eaux , set to poems by René Char, underlines the Debussyist lineage of the creator Boulez.

The Sun of the Waters / J.-E. Bavouzet

A musical workshop adapted from the France Inter podcast with 5 million downloads featuring the Orchestre National de France!

The fabulous stories of France Inter's cuddly toy

Exactly one hundred years since Pierre Boulez was born. Conductor, composer, theoretician, how can we sum up this figure, whose tutelary shadow continues to hover over the past century? Philippe Manoury, who was a close friend, pays tribute to him, and after his whimsical Notations , the Orchestre National de France remembers the immense Wagnerian that was Boulez: the first act of Die Walküre resurrects memories of a certain Bayreuth festival.

The Valkyrie / Ratings

We're off to Vienna because it's New Year's Eve, but beware of the turbulence. From the elegant Viennese palaces, where Hungarian Dance and The Blue Danube resonate , we zigzag towards the cabaret: and here is the entire heritage of Beethoven, Kreisler and Johann Strauss revisited and energized by a few guests with furious energy. The Janoska Ensemble, from Bratislava, is having a blast with the National and its musical director at the start of this year.

The Grand Tour

Equinoxe National Scene

Espace des Arts, Scène nationale Chalon-sur-Saône

Maison de la culture de Bourges

Maison de la culture de Grenoble

Vichy Opera House

Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5

Playing, hearing (and therefore sharing) Bach is always a joy – a famous conductor once spoke of “music in the castle of heaven”. What could be more apt? Celestial, it speaks to men. Human, it reaches for the heights as soon as it rises. Bach being, of all composers, the one who has been transcribed the most, the musicians of the National have had the wonderful idea of ​​offering the Goldberg Variations , in a version for wind octet, and Suite No. 2. Christmas is here!

Bach, Goldberg Variations - National Mornings

A kid carted around the four corners of Europe, paraded before princes like a learned monkey; an impossible youthful love; a weakling for an employer; a premature death, in poverty and indifference: Mozart's life is a novel, and his genius, probably the greatest, most luminous, and most universal in the history of humanity. Between two pages of this music that does so much good to the soul and the heart, Laure Grandbesançon tells you everything it doesn't say.

The Odysseys

Ravel's Anniversary, preview: after the irreplaceable Boléro , Beatrice Rana dives into the Concerto in G major , a work of orchestral luxuriance and pianistic boldness, fast, turbulent, whose ineffable poetry of the slow movement is unparalleled. With its passion and velocity, the atmosphere of Paul Dukas's scherzo, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, remains  the most effective remedy against gloom. Finally, Stravinsky's Firebird Suite   gives voice, during an evening like fireworks. This concert is given as part of the Orchestre National de France's tour in Germany.

Dukas, The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Beatrice Rana

Kultur- & Kongresszentrum Liederhalle

Alte Oper

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Museum Ludwig

Between music and movement, dream and reality, the lines blur to amaze us. 
Two musicians in motion, embodying the characters of Pierrot and Colombine, will take families into their dreamlike world. Throughout this participatory and immersive workshop-show, children will accompany and interact with the two artists, through vocal and physical games, to musical excerpts from the classical and popular repertoire. Escape and discoveries guaranteed!

The Dream Workshop

If we were to attribute to Bruckner these words of Nietzsche, we would not be very wrong: "The melancholy that inhabits me needs to rest in the hiding places and in the abysses of perfection. It is to achieve this that I need music" wrote the author of The Gay Science . The entire Seventh seems to be summed up there, which lives again here under the baton of Philippe Jordan. Continuation and end of the Bruckner bicentenary, completed by the pious Forgotten Offerings of the young Olivier Messiaen.

Bruckner, Symphony No. 7 / Philippe Jordan - BRUCKNER 3/3

Are we crossing Romantic Germany or the Renaissance? In the second of his three great masses, Anton Bruckner seeks to recapture the spirit of the polyphonies of past centuries: a Palestrina-like purity springs from the introductory Kyrie , while the singular choice of only wind instruments to accompany the sequences participates in this stripped-down ritual; did God's minstrel follow the example of Brahms and his Funeral Song ?

CHORUS LINE #2 / Brahms, Bruckner - Lionel Sow / BRUCKNER 2/3

From Bo Widerberg's Elvira Madigan to Agnès Jaoui's The Taste of Others, via Bertrand Blier and Claude Lelouch, Mozart's Concerto No. 21 has become a classic... of cinema. Delicate Mozartian, David Fray makes his Andante sing between heaven and earth, as a preamble to the harmonic cathedral erected by Anton Bruckner, born exactly two centuries ago; inaugurated by the murmur of horns and concluded by a fervent peroration, this Fourth , called "Romantic", is undoubtedly the most mystical of his symphonies

Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 21 / David Fray - BRUCKNER 1/3

November, the month of the Radio France Auditorium. Exactly ten years since the birthplace of the four Radio France ensembles opened its doors, and for which an anniversary fanfare composed by Yuki Nakahashi, from the CNSMDP, will ring out. But the other salute of the evening is addressed implicitly to the charismatic Mstislav Rostropovich, to whom Henri Dutilleux dedicated the anthem Slava's Fanfare , in 1989, exactly thirty years after Shostakovich dedicated his First Cello Concerto . It is now Edgar Moreau's turn to defend the colors, during a concert with the feel of a gala.

Shostakovich / Dutilleux - E. Moreau / A. Orozco-Estrada

With sound cinema, Radio France invites the public to listen to certain fictions with an immersion in the world of so-called spatialized sound in the manner of a "movie session." And this time, the two sessions will be illustrated by a screening of the original colorized plates of Hergé's The Blue Lotus .

The Adventures of Tintin - The Blue Lotus

Resurrection is a hard-fought conquest for Mahler. From the Last Judgment to the Apocalypse, it forges its way through an epic battle and a maze of contradictions; it is the long-awaited chorus that intones the ode to eternal life, during a final movement that begins in deafening silence. "I felt as if a flash of lightning had illuminated me," Mahler recalls, "like the one awaited by the composer whose inspiration is sacred. The light appeared in my mind then."

Mahler, Symphony No. 2 / Cristian Măcelaru

Vasilissa is an adventurous and daring Cinderella! Thanks to her magic doll, hidden deep in her pocket, no obstacle will ever get the better of her. The perfidy of her sisters and the cruelty of her stepmother could very well lead her into the lair of the horrible Baba Yaga! The intrepid duo couldn't care less about cannibalistic witches and labors worthy of Hercules.

Vasilissa the Most Beautiful

Mozart and Poulenc: these two go well together. Moreover, one can find Mozartian virtues in Francis Poulenc's music, in its relationship to faith, its quest for light and its refusal of pathos; the Frenchman placed Mozart's "divine purity" above all else, readily quoting this phrase from ETA Hoffman to sum up his feeling: "it is to the depths of the mysterious kingdom that Mozart leads us; love and melancholy sing in the graceful voices of spirits; the night flies away in a purple blaze." The nocturnal setting of the Seven Responses prepares us for the Requiem .

Mozart's Requiem, Lisette Oropesa / Cyrille Dubois

An unclassifiable object, an excess, a fabulous animal, which cannot be tamed at first glance and demands that we forget all preconceived notions: is this Concerto even one? Yes and no. It is part symphony, part oratorio, it is conflictual, branches off into strange ramifications, all in five movements exceeding 75 minutes. It is the longest concerto in history. A pianist-philosopher, its author nourishes it with Brahms, Berlioz, Liszt and invites, in its coda, to draw closer to Allah. Mad!

Busoni, Piano Concerto - Kirill Gerstein / Sakari Oramo

Let's just say it: Riccardo Muti is Verdi's greatest active conductor. From Nabucco to Otello , the former director of Milan's La Scala has thoroughly explored his operas, always valuing their urgency and nobility, combining a sacred respect for the text, a sense of singing, and an innate love for this theater of passions, with its thunderbolts and outbursts. Verdi's Requiem , which is not far from being an opera, is a classic in his repertoire. And a date to be remembered.

Requiem by Verdi, Riccardo Muti

The silence that follows Mozart is still Mozart's, they say; but what about the silence that precedes Mozart? The Estonian Arvo Pärt provides a credible answer, he who, between the hypnotic passages and bell-like sounds that punctuate his music, has placed silence at the heart of it. Thus, after his Fratres  ("Brothers"), Francesco Piemontesi distils Mozartian nectar in the energetic Twenty-fifth Concerto , before the entire orchestra intones and climbs Brahms's sculptural Fourth  .

Grand Tour of the National

Casino d'Arras

Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne

Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 25

Even though your name is Brahms, composing an unplayable concerto is not going to delight its recipient: so Joseph Joachim demanded that the master revise his copy, which was riddled with difficulties. Fortunately, the years have passed, and this masterpiece of Romanticism has become a hobbyhorse for virtuosos – starting with Julia Fischer. In contrast, the Images, the great Debussy signature of the National, and the rediscovery of a too-forgotten figure, the adventurous Elsa Barraine.

Les 2 Scènes - Théâtre Ledoux

Brahms, Violin Concerto

The National Orchestra of France in Austria: Grafenegg

Grafenegg Wolkenturm

For the eleventh consecutive year, Radio France, France Télévisions , the  City of Paris,  and  Électron Libre Productions  are pleased to offer listeners and viewers an exceptional moment,  Le Concert de Paris,  with  the Orchestre National de France, the Maîtrise  and the Chœur de Radio France. In this exceptional year of the Olympic Games, the Torch Relay will end on the Parvis de l'Hôtel de Ville with the lighting of the cauldron in front of the Hôtel de Ville, a few minutes before the start of the traditional  City of Paris Fireworks.

Hôtel de Ville

"Napoleon as seen by Abel Gance," finally reconstructed and restored by the Cinémathèque française. Abel Gance's Napoleonic epic will finally be unveiled, after 16 years of work, in its unpublished, complete, and definitive 7-hour version, in two parts on July 4 and 5 at the Seine Musicale. For this world premiere, the musical ensembles of Radio France will perform the film's new score created for this occasion from the classical repertoire. An exceptional symphonic film concert worthy of this cinematic monument, released in 1927.

Napoleon, seen by Abel Gance

La Seine Musicale

As part of the National Jubilee, here is an immersion in its history. Producer, on France Musique, of the program "Au cœur de l'orchestre", Christian Merlin assesses the symphonic world with a contagious gusto: Christian goes back in time and paints the great moments of the Orchestre National de France, under the complicit eye of those involved who, for their part, revisit the classics of the house repertoire ( Bolero, Sorcerer's Apprentice ) whipped up by the musical director Măcelaru… first name Cristian.

At the heart of the orchestra

After the May 26th concert, the 105 musicians of Viva l'Orchestra! return to the forefront. A Music Festival that lives up to its name, honoring amateur musicians. And then, it's also the arrival of summer. Isn't this the perfect opportunity to come and applaud them a second time?

Long live the Orchestra!

Following acute lower back pain during the dress rehearsal this morning,  Alice Sara Ott is forced to cancel her appearance at the Orchestre National de France concert this evening.

Faure Anniversary 3/3

Gabriel Fauré's timbre rises again on this Sunday morning, in the fullness of his chamber music, which includes his richest pages. The soloists of the National gather around Emmanuel Strosser in the First Quintet , then, alone facing Tchaikovsky, sing his Souvenirs de Florence in six voices – a story of rehearing that dream of a Serenade born while contemplating the Arno.

FAURÉ ANNIVERSARY 2/3 - The Mornings of the National

No shouts, but whispers, a hushed delicacy and unfulfilled impulses: Gabriel Fauré died exactly a century ago, and our attachment to his music is intact. An entire evening is devoted to him, starting with the Ballade and Fantaisie for piano and orchestra , and for the cello, the Élégie . Not forgetting the suites from  Pelléas et Mélisande  and Masques et bergamasques . We are looking out for a highly anticipated debut with the National: pianist Lucas Debargue.

Faure Anniversary 1/3

A love song, followed by two highlights from the French repertoire. Alexandre Kantorow, First Prize and Gold Medal winner at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition, chooses Chopin's Second Piano Concerto , which the Polish composer premiered in Warsaw before leaving his country for good, while the vast sound poem of Debussy's La Mer  segues into the haunting mechanics of Ravel's Boléro : two pieces championed worldwide by the Orchestre National de France.

The Grand Tour of the National

Grain Market

"Scène Nationale

Theatre Archipelago

Having won First Prize and the Gold Medal at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition at the age of 22, the young Frenchman chose Chopin's Second Concerto , which the Polish composer premiered in Warsaw before leaving his country for good. A marvelous work that demands, in addition to silver fingers, a sense of singing that embraces the lost melody of the Larghetto in the slow movement, dedicated to Konstanze Gladowska.

Chopin, Piano Concerto No. 2 / Alexandre Kantorow: Outside the Walls

Auditori Palau de Congressos de Girona

There is no need to have before one's eyes what one is setting to music. If Saint-Saëns stayed in Luxor at the time of his Fifth Piano Concerto , aptly called "The Egyptian", Claude Debussy lingered in Burgundy when he sketched out La Mer: the filter of memories is worth more than a daily reality, especially to erect a sound poem of this scope, an abstract symphony in three movements which goes so far as to capture the elusive.

Orchestre National de France

Dec 7, 2025

National Sundays / Emmanuel Pahud

Dec 11, 2025

Chopin, Concerto No. 1 - Bruce Liu / Joana Mallwitz

Dec 12, 2025

The Grand Tour: La Rochelle

Dec 18, 2025

The Bells, Symphony No. 3 Marina Rebeka

Dec 31, 2025 - Jan 1, 2026

Aranjuez Concerto / Thibaut Garcia

Dec 4, 2025

The Woman Without a Shadow Pahud / Gabel

Nov 27, 2025

Roman Carnival / Daniele Gatti

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