Studio France

This 7CD set is the fruit of the love affair that developed in Paris between Leonard Bernstein and the Orchestre National de France in the 1970s. Beside long-admired studio recordings, featuring Mstislav Rostropovich and Alexis Weissenberg among the soloists, it presents live performances completely new to the catalogue: a 1975 programme to celebrate Ravel’s centenary – with Bernstein himself as soloist in the G major piano concerto – and orchestral suites taken from two of Bernstein’s most celebrated and brilliant works, both infused with jazz: the film score On the Waterfront and the landmark Broadway musical West Side Story. 25th August 2018 marks the centenary of the birth of American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). He was one of the most celebrated and charismatic musicians of his time, an artist who transcended conventional boundaries between genres.

The Band was born in 1972, on the initiative of Jean-Marie Renard, guitarist from the beginning and manager of the Band today, in the wake of a basic musical current launched by Alan Stivell. He brings together five musicians friends of different musical cultures (traditional, jazz, folk, rock'n'roll) around a common passion, the Celtic music, to form the band Gwendal. At that time in France many bands inspired by the Breton and Irish traditional music appeared. Gwendal distinguished itself from the very start by the choice of what will make the continuity of its style during its entire career: a sound mixing melodies of traditional influence, with arrangements and rhythmic strongly influenced by modern musical currents of various times: jazz, rock'n'roll…

This major English band of the 60s, precursor and founder of hard rock blues, exerted a decisive influence on a whole section of rock history. Despite his short career (1963-1968) started at the same time as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, he saw the holy trinity of British guitarists : Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.