Robert Schumann: Scenes from Goethe’s Faust

Another very successful concert at the Philharmonie de Paris from September 2016, was Robert Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, performed by the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Daniel Harding, the Orchestre de Paris Choir & the Orchestre de Paris Children Choir and an array of leading singers: Franz-Josef Selig (bass), Christian Gerhaher (baritone), Hanna-Elisabeth Müller (soprano), Mari Eriksmoen (soprano), Bernarda Fink (mezzo), Andrew Staples (tenor) and Tareq Nazmi (bass).

Schumann’s work, a large-cale secular oratorio, opens with … an Overture, and includes 3 parts : the 1st two ones correspond to Goethe’s Faust I and end with Faust’s death, the 3rd part relates to the end of Faust II.

An inspired conductor, a splendid orchestra (with violinists Roland Daugareil & Serge Pataud, violists David Gaillard & Nicolas Carles, cellist Eric Picard), choirs at par and high-level soloists with a special mention to the most excellent Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, Christian Gerhaher and the supreme Wagnerian (but not only!) Franz-Josef Selig, nay Andrew Staples.