21 Music provides international artistic promotion services to musical institutions, either distributing their digital recordings or supporting them in the creation of both digital and physical productions. Drawing on its extensive experience in all areas of album production, including communication with international media organisations, 21 Music is a flexible, committed partner, offering strategic support to orchestras, ensembles and artists.

21 Music collaborates with the Orchestre national Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Orchestre philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Ensemble Variances and Cameristi della Scala, and also boasts a selection of its own productions of several works by composer Jean-Pascal Beintus, alongside a series of historical recordings.

21 Music enables orchestras and artists to see their music accessible in every corner of the globe via 24 platforms and to appear in international charts and playlists (Apple Music, Spotify, etc.), whilst making noise amongst specialist and general international media players.

In January 2019, the Orchestre national Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes broke new ground on the French music scene with the launch of Orchestre national d’Auvergne Live: the first exclusively digital label ever to be created by a French orchestra. Four and a half years later, its catalogue boasts a total of 15 albums recorded live in concert, now available to stream or download in every corner of the globe.

These tracks have achieved national and international critical acclaim and are now enjoyed by music lovers worldwide, featuring time and time again in playlists and charts on the likes of Spotify and Apple Music.

However, with a wealth of physical recordings dating back to when it was founded in 1981, the Orchestre national d’Auvergne now enriches its discography with Crépuscule, the first album released under its new OnA label, recorded in the studio under the baton of Roberto Forés Veses.

Driven by the artistic innovation and excellence deeply engrained in its DNA, the Auvergne-based orchestra is therefore the first French ensemble to produce and distribute its own live concert and studio recordings, and to offer them in both physical and digital formats.

Under the baton of Principal Conductor Thomas Zehetmair and Associate Conductors Enrico Onofri  and Christian Zacharias, the Orchestre national Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is thrilled to launch a brand new musical season packed with adventurous programmes, concerts and tours. 

Thanks to the support and impetus of our Associate Conductors and the surrounding region as a whole, our unique ensemble has been able to successfully enrich its repertoire with a plethora of original and inventive projects, weaving together a series of concerts across stages near and far in perfect harmony.

From quartet to orchestra, the globally-minded string ensemble continues to project the charm of its region across international borders, all the while innovating within the metropolis of Clermont-Ferrand and its home streets in Auvergne through a whole host of musical formats suitable for all kinds of audiences, from baby concerts, music and snacks, midnight soirées and coffee concerts to recitals in nursing homes and local residencies: a diverse approach recognised by the Ministry of Culture in 2019, awarding the ensemble the prestigious title of “Orchestre national en région”.

Testament to the huge diversity of its repertoire, to date the orchestra has recorded 50 albums exploring an abundance of musical styles, from baroque masterpieces to contemporary creations. The ensemble is also the first French orchestra to create its own 100% freely accessible digital label, OnA Live, which has currently been streamed more than 400,000 times in almost 160 countries.

Since it was founded in 1981, the Orchestre national Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes has always strived to reach a broad audience both regionally and internationally. Nestled in the heart of the Massif Central, the ensemble is praised amongst French orchestral music lovers for its unique sonority, strength and quest for absolute perfection. 

Initially formed with Jean-Jacques Kantorow at the helm, followed by Arie van Beek and Roberto Forés Veses, the orchestra has a signature sound that has gradually been shaped by the invaluable input of musical directors past and present, now instantly recognised across the world.

Celebrating its first 10 years, it is the perfect time for Ensemble Variances and Thierry Pécou to look back on their rich and daring journey whilst showcasing new creative directions for the future. The Ensemble is taking the opportunity of its 10th anniversary to celebrate new independent and artistic directions while giving life and air to several flagship creations of recent years. Unlike any other form, a digital album crosses all global borders offering a coherent and connected presence of across the whole world,touching many cultures.

"10 years makes you think of a good, old rum (let's not forget that Variances was founded in Martinique) or a good ‘pu ehr’ , my favourite tea which needs to age, like  wine. Because yes, you have to have lived 10 years to share so many musical and human moments - even non-humans!, having travelled the world, met audiences, other artists and musicians, created many scores, to form a real family, a mature spirit of the whole and imbued with multiple flavours." Thierry Pécou 

Human Non Human is a two-part album questioning the relationship of humanity tonature and living things. “ In our time, shattered by a global pandemic and by the climate threat, we want to be of our time, tell the world with our sound palettes and give people reason to pause, take some distance, to dream.» explains Thierry Pécou. In a process of awakening sound and contemplative awareness to major current environmental problems, the album encourages listeners, through the power of music, to see the changes experienced by our planet and our friends in the animal kingdom. A double album entirely made by contemporary composers, musicians, sounds and themes

OPMC Classics, the label of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, was launched in the fall of 2010 by Yakov Kreizberg, Artistic and Musical Director of the orchestra. Among the projects that he had initiated, the recording label was particularly close to his heart. 

21 Music  will offer, from the spring of 2019, the worldwide digital distribution of  OPMC Classics. Music lovers from all the world will be able to find all the titles edited under the baton of : Yakov Kreizberg, Gianluigi Gelmetti or Jean Deroyer as well as new releases under the conducting of Kazuki Yamada, its music director : Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique et Rêverie et Caprice by Liza Kerob, violin ; Felix Mendelssohn's Symphonies n°1  & n°3  and Gabriel Fauré's Requiem & Cantique de Jean Racine with : Regula Mühlemann, soprano; Jean-François Lapointe, baryton; Saya Hashino, orguan and theTokyo Philharmonic Choir. 

This is the first commercial recording of David Randall’s Symphony in C Major, “Paths to Redemption” conducted by Phillippe Béran, featuring the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo,  (OPMC). 

David Randall was born in London in 1948 and educated in the United Kingdom and is an alumni of the London School of Economics. He had no formal musical training but from an early age, assimilated a wide repertory of classical music, attending many concerts and listening to the gramophone. He has been associated with the Royal Opera House and served as Trustee of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He lived in Hong-Kong from 1978 and moved to Monaco a few years later. David is married with 4 children. 

It is remarkable how this work in traditional late 19th century orchestral style came into existence because the Composer cherished an inspiration to create a symphonic work to celebrate his 70th birthday in 2018. Familiar with the repertoire and prepared by decades of analytical listening experience, he set out to find an amanuensis to assist him with the technical demands of transcribing his original concept from vocally recorded themes, melodic and rhythmic inspirations, with the intention of scoring what was to emerge as a large-scale composition. In December 2014, David was to encounter a gifted pianist and composer Kirk Whipple, and they coordinated several virtual meetings to explore the possibility of a collaboration, which developed with extraordinarily productive energy, the latter sharing an almost telepathic vision of David’s objective. 

The work began to emerge as 5 movements, opening with a powerful liturgical motif, setting the tone for a conflict between spiritual and temporal, sublime and sensual opposing forces, in a quest for reconciliation and reincarnation. 

They met on a number of occasions to create David’s original work in Massachusetts, Miami and Monaco, with Kirk interpreting David’s voice sketches on keyboard and together, arduously and meticulously building the score stave upon stave commencing with an 8-hands piano edition that would serve as the intermediate version for the fully orchestrated work, intended eventually to be performed by the OPMC on David’s birthday. The fruition of this successful collaboration, was in summer 2016 with performances in the US and in Monte-Carlo of David’s composition in the 8-hands piano version, also recorded in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 

For the orchestral symphony, the Composer had the good fortune to collaborate with a gifted arranger, Ben Foskett, and by which time, the Swiss conductor, Philippe Beran, was already committed to accompany the Composer towards final preparations for the orchestral premiere. 

Lasting under just one hour, “Paths to Redemption” is in 5 movements, sequentially 1. “Schism,” 2. “Marche Grotesque,” 3. “Transcendence,” 4. “Immortality” and 5. “Redemption,” which metaphorically represent the composer’s reflections upon humanity’s yearning for a higher purpose, to embrace spirituality, and comprehend the riddle of existence, seeking transcendence to immortality. Perhaps in a nod to Gustav Mahler, the fourth movement features a soprano soloist in a setting of the popular poem “Do not stand at my grave and weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye, which has a special place in David’s affection and for which he wrote a second stanza “Grieve not my passing’s solemn knell” to complement the original verse, driven by his intention to accentuate Frye’s Pantheist view and provide hope of resurrection. 

To read the programme notes and the text of the poem.