Universal masterpieces by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Ludwig van Beethoven: this is what the musicians of the Lille National Orchestra (ONL) took along in their suitcases for their Great Britain Brexit tour. The only French orchestra to offer a tour with our English neighbors in this historic period, the hundred professional artists of the ONL wanted to strengthen Franco-British relations at the time of the divorce with the rest of Europe.
"Whatever happens, the artists do not stop moving and England remains an hour and ten from Lille by Eurostar", recalls the restless musical director and conductor of the band, Alexandre Bloch. Two years ago, the latter decided with the director general of the ONL, François Bou, to play cultural diplomats by programming five dates of concerts on the other side of the Channel, from Birmingham to Leeds via London . Chance wanted their journey to take place in the middle of Brexit. That day, on the stage of the Symphony Hall in Birmingham, the young conductor, 34 years old and 1.80 meters tall, was untenable and jumped like a zebulon. "England is my second home", He says.
"It is important to continue to exchange and share the emotion of music with the English public during this special week. »Alexandre Bloch
Before becoming music director of the ONL in September 2016 and principal guest conductor of the Düsseldorf symphony orchestra since 2015, this cellist won the international performance competition Donatella Flick, in London, in 2012, and was conductor orchestra attending the London Symphony Orchestra until 2014. "I have lived in London and Manchester and I am still regularly invited, he said. As with the people we love, it is important to continue to exchange and share the emotion of music with the English public during this special week.. "
In great metamorphosis for three years, the big family of the ONL also shared during this tour the favorites british from its chef: the acoustics of the Sage Gateshead room in Newcastle, the morning jogging in Sheffield or the calzone spread and mascarpone accompanied by a vanilla ice cream served with a drizzle of maple syrup … The restaurant kitchen Gusto in Newcastle remained specially open to welcome around sixty musicians determined to taste Alexandre Bloch's sweet sin.
New life
After the departure of its founding conductor, Jean-Claude Casadesus, 84, including forty at the head of the orchestra, the ONL saw more than a quarter of its musicians renewed. Founded in 1976, the ONL took advantage of the renovations to the Salle du Nouveau Siècle, in the heart of Lille, then the arrival of Alexandre Bloch to rejuvenate its ranks as well as its audience, one of the youngest in France.
