Eric Le Sage / François Salque / Paul Meyer
Biography Eric Le Sage / François Salque / Paul Meyer
François Salque
is recognised as one of the most stunning cellists of his generation. His profound musical thinking and phenomenal technique have earned him many prestigious awards: François is a prize-winner at such international competitions as Lausanne (Unanimous First Prize), Geneva (2nd Prize), ARD Munich, Tchaikovsky in Moscow…. He was each time given the highest distinctions ever awarded to a French cellist in the histories of these competitions.
His outstanding talent was equally recognised in the United-States where he won a Master of Music degree at Yale University as well as no less than six First Prizes in international competitions.
In France, he won the First Prize of the 'Hommage to Paul Tortelier and Maurice Gendron' International Competition and the Pierre Fournier Prize.
François has already performed as a soloist and in chamber music in over forty countries with some of the world’s most renowned artists ( Jean-Claude Pennetier, Alexandre Tharaud, Michel Portal, Paul Meyer, Emmanuel Pahud, Itamar Golan, Renaud Capuçon, Barry Douglas, Gil Shaham, ...)
He has played as a soloist with such prestigious orchestras as the Münchner Rundfunk Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Moscow chamber orchestra, the Saint-Petersburg Camerata, the Baltica Chamber Orchestra, the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berner Philharmonic... as well as many French orchestras.
His recordings for BMG RCA, Arion or Lyrinx with pianists Eric Le Sage and Alexandre Tharaud were highly acclaimed and received many awards.
Eric Le Sage
is established as one of the leading pianists of his generation and a famous representative of the French piano school, regularly boasted for his very subtle sound, his real sense of structure and poetic phrasing. Already when he was 20 years old, the Financial Times had described him as “an extremely cultivated disciple of the great French tradition of Schumann piano”. In 2010, die Zeit, praised his “ideal French piano aesthetics and clarity”
In 2010 Eric Le Sage very successfully came to the end of a project that he had cherished and prepared for a long time: recording Robert Schumann’s complete works for piano He has been invited to perform in this context in various venues around the world including the Louisiana Museum of Arts in Denmark for a 10-concert series until 2010, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Salle Pleyel for a carte blanche in 2008, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées for a recital in 2010, the Schumann Festival in Düsseldorf, La Roque d’Anthéron, la Folle Journée, St Magnus Festival, the Warsaw Beethoven Festival for the Schumann year, among other venues throughout the world. These recordings for the independent French label Alpha were awarded in the summer 2010 the very prestigious Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Reviewers from the world over have written elated comments about what is already cited as a reference in the history of Schumann recordings.
Eric Le Sage has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in such major venues as la Roque d’Anthéron, Festival International de Menton, Potsdam Sanssouci, Théâtre du Châtelet, Salle Pleyel, Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade, Ludwigsburg Festival, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Dublin’s celebrity series, Louisiana Museum of Arts, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, ... as well as various venues in Germany, Italy, Spain, the United-Kingdom, South America, the United-States, Japan.
Eric is invited to perform as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto Philharmonic, the Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart’s SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Gothenburg Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic,, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Zwickau Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National d’Ile de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, with conductors like Armin Jordan, Edo de Waart, Stéphane Denève, Louis Langrée, Michel Plasson, Michael Stern, Sir Simon Rattle…
Most of Eric Le Sage’s recordings for RCA-BMG, Naïve, EMI and now Alpha were highly acclaimed and awarded the most sought after rewards in France: Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Choc de l’Année Classica, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix du Disque, Recording of the Month in Fono Forum and Gramophone, Victoire de la Musique.
Born in Aix en Provence, Eric Le Sage was the winner of major international competitions such as Porto in 1985 and the Robert Schumann competition in Zwickau, in 1989. He was also a prize-winner at Leeds International competition the same year, which allowed him to perform under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.
Paul Meyer
One of the world’s exceptional clarinettists, in the last few years Paul Meyer has also built up an extensive career as a conductor. He has conducted among others,the Seoul Philharmonic, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano G.Verdi, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Sinfonia Varsovia, Belgrade Philharmonic, Bilbao Symphony and Taipei Symphony Orchestra. He toured France with the Prague Chamber Orchestra and Italy with the Archi Italiana. During the season 2004/05, he has conducted the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Michel Portal as soloist, the Orchestre National d’Ile de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, as well as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with Emmanuel Pahud as soloist, on tour in Scotland and Germany.
As a clarinettist he has appeared with major orchestras in Europe, USA, Far East and Australia such as : Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, BBC Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Hamburg and Hanover NDR Orchestras, Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Munich, Stuttgart, Zurich Chamber Orchestras, Scottish and English Chamber Orchestras, Orchestre National de France, Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Monte-Carlo, Nice, Strasbourg, Toulouse Orchestras, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under conductors like Myung-Whun chung, Günther Herbig, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Marek Janowski, Michael Gielen, Hans Graf, Dennis Russell Davies, John Nelson, Kent Nagano, Emmanuel Krivine, Sylvain Cambreling, Luciano Berio, Ulf Schirmer, Heinrich Schiff, Michael Schonwandt, David Zinman.
Paul Meyer has a wide repertoire which includes the major contemporary works for clarinet (Pierre Boulez, Morton Gould, Hans-Werner Henze, Gerd Kuhr, …). Krysztof Penderecki composed for him a concerto which was premiered at the Bad Kissingen Festival with the Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by the composer. Luciano Berio has dedicated to him a clarinet concerto - Alternatim – premiered in Europe and in the USA. He also gave a premiere of Michael Jarrell’s Concerto for clarinet with the Orchestre de Paris and Sylvain Cambreling. This season he is giving a premiere of Jean-Louis Agobet’s Concerto for 3 Clarinets, Quigan Chen’s Concerto with the Strasbourg Philharmonic, as well as with the Shangai Philharmonic under Muhai Tang and J.P.Goude’s Piece with the Bretagne Orchestra.
In chamber music, Paul Meyer plays with Myung-Whun Chung, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Gérard Caussé, François-René Duchable, Michel Dalberto, Maria Joao Pires, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Pamela Frank, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Barbara Hendricks, Nathalie Dessay, Mstislav Rostropovich, Heinrich Schiff, Tabea Zimmermann, Jian Wang and Emmanuel Pahud, as well as the Carmina, Cleveland, Emerson, Hagen, Melos, Vogler, Ysaye, Lindsay and Takacs String Quartets. He had the honour to play with Jean-Pierre Rampal and Isaac Stern.
Paul Meyer has recorded pieces by Mozart, Weber, Copland, Busoni, Krommer, Pleyel, Brahms, Schumann, Bernstein, Arnold, Piazzolla, Poulenc for Denon, CBS, Erato, Sony, EMI, BMG, DGG. His recordings received numerous prizes (Diapason d’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Stern by Monats Fonoforum, French Victoires de la Musique 99). Recently released : Astor Piazzolla’s Concerto para Quintetto with Gidon Kremer (Nonesuch), Poulenc chamber music (BMG), Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps with Myung-Whun Chung, Gil Shaham, Jian Wang (DGG), Brahms recital with Eric Le Sage (BMG), chamber music with Emmanuel Pahud and Eric Le Sage and his first recordings as conductor with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto and Jean-Marc Luisada (BMG) in Mozart and Haydn. Just released : Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and John Nelson (Virgin Classics).
Paul Meyer was born in Mulhouse (France) in 1965. Following his debut performance at the age of 13 with the Orchestre Symphonique du Rhin, he went on to study at the Paris Conservatoire and at the Basler Musikhochschule. Winner of the French Young Musicians Competition in 1982 and of the prestigious USA Young Concert Artists Auditions in 1984, he went on to give debut concerts in New York and consequently met and became friends with the legendary Benny Goodman, whose influence and friendship played an important part in Paul Meyer’s career and life.
