Mikie Bal

Star guitarist and Echo winner Milos is back with a brand new album: "The Forrest & The Moon".

Georges Prêtre was one of the leading conductors of the last half of the 20th century, especially known for operatic conducting and performances of French music. He studied trumpet as a boy, graduating from the Douai Conservatory. Nazi occupation of Paris did not substantially interfere with the teaching activities of the famous Paris Conservatory, where Prêtre continued his musical studies. He took first prize in trumpet in 1944 and studied harmony with Henri Challan and Maurice Duruflé. He began studying conducting with André Cluytens, Pierre Dervaux, and Richard Blareau. His conducting debut was in operetta, a fact that eluded biographers since he used the assumed name of Georges Dherain. His official conducting debut was at the Marseilles Opera in 1946, in Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys. He spent a decade primarily in provincial French opera houses: Marseilles (1946-1948), Lille (1948), Casablanca (1949-1951), and Toulouse (1951-1955). He was appointed music director of the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1956, debuting with Richard Strauss' Capriccio and conducting a wide variety of repertory there.

The acclaimed pianist Mark Bebbington marks his Resonus Classics debut, and the start of a new French music series, with a major new recording of works by Francis Poulenc. Joined by conductor Jan Latham-Koenig, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, this varied programme of works for piano features the Piano Concerto (the last of his five concertos) and the rarely-recorded piano version of the Concert champêtre so often performed by Poulenc himself. Bebbington is also joined by oboist John Roberts and bassoonist Jonathan Davies for the Trio for Piano, Oboe & Bassoon, and the Sonata for Oboe & Piano.