RPO partners with Harmonia Mundi

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) has today announced a new partnership with the Harmonia Mundi record label. The recording collaboration will see the orchestra and music director Vasily Petrenko release a new recording of major works by Elgar, Rachmaninov, Strauss, Bartok and Stravinsky.

The first recording of the new partnership is set to be released this autumn, featuring Elgar’s Falstaff and Rachmaninov’s The Bells, while future planned releases will focus on the music of Strauss, Bartok and Stravinsky. The recording partnership reflects recent RPO research which found that for 20 per cent of orchestral music fans expansion their music collection is integral to their musical journey.

RPO music director Vasily Petrenko said: ‘When you have the privilege to conduct a great orchestra, you get used to thinking big. Naturally, I do my best to aim high: to share with our audience the finest melodies, the strongest emotions, the most magnificent sounds. But for me, there’s another side to music-making and that is the ability to capture moments of shared magic in recorded form, allowing them to live in people’s hearts in r perpetuity. I have always enjoyed the creative process of recording music and I’m delighted to start a new chapter with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – and for our music to have the opportunity to be heard and enjoyed far beyond the concert hall.’

Founded in 1958 and based in the French city of Arles, Harmonia Mundi now represents around 50 international artists. Integration into recording ‘family’ [PIAS] group in autumn 2015, marked a new chapter in the label’s development and allowed it to welcome a fresh cohort of artists.

Harmonia Mundi head Christian Girardin said: ‘Welcoming a symphony orchestra of the stature of the Royal Philharmonic is obviously one of the dreams of any record producer; with this new collaboration we are proud to develop a repertoire that has long been far removed from the label's image. This is not simply a desire for diversification, but an artistic convergence linked to what is the alpha and omega of the label: a passion for excellence, this way of exploring the repertoire as if it were a contemporary creation, with a fresh eye, absolute artistic standards and a love of the works we tackle.’