LE CONCERT DE LA LOGE

In January 2015, the violinist Julien Chauvin founded a new period-instrument orchestra with the ambition of reviving an essential component of French musical history: the Concert de la Loge Olympique.
That orchestra, founded in 1783 by the Comte d’Ogny, was then considered one of the finest in Europe and has remained famous for commissioning the ‘Paris’ Symphonies of Joseph Haydn. At that time, a substantial majority of musicians were Freemasons, and many concert associations were linked to Masonic Lodges such as the Loge Olympique de la Parfaite Estime. The modern, flexibly sized ensemble presents chamber, symphonic and vocal-operatic programmes directed from the violin or the baton and champions a wide repertory ranging from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. The aim of this recreation project is also to explore new forms of concerts, harking back to the spontaneity of late-eighteenth practice, which intermingled different genres and artists in a single programme, and to establish links with other artistic disciplines.

Since it was founded, the ensemble has toured many venues with operas including Haydn’s Armida directed by Mariame Clément, Sacchini’s Le Cid directed by Sandrine Anglade, Lemoyne’s Phèdre and Isouard’s Cendrillon staged by Marc Paquien for the Palazzetto Bru Zane and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail staged by Christophe Rulhes. It also enjoys regular collaborations with such renowned soloists as Karina Gauvin, Sandrine Piau, Philippe Jaroussky and Justin Taylor.

On disc, the orchestra has recorded six volumes of Haydn’s complete ‘Paris’ Symphonies (Aparté label) with works from the same period performed at the Concert de la Loge Olympique. In addition, the ensemble has devoted itself to rediscovering other repertoires: the French melodies orchestrated in “Si j’ai aimé” with Sandrine Piau (Alpha label), the “Symphonies de Salons” (Aparté label), and violin concerti for the Naïve label with the release in 2020 of the 63rd volume of the Vivaldi Edition “Il Teatro”.

In 2021, Le Concert de la Loge has begun a new collaboration with the Alpha label around Mozart’s three last symphonies. Its recordings have received critical acclaim, earning such distinctions as the Diamant d’Opéra Magazine, Choc de Classica, Sélection Le Monde, ffff Télérama and the Grand Prix du Disque Charles Cros… Since the French National Olympic and Sports Committee opposed the ensemble’s use of the adjective ‘Olympic’, it was forced to truncate its historical name and adopt the designation ‘Le Concert de la Loge’ in June 2016.

The ensemble is supported by the Ministère de la Culture, the Ville de Paris, the Region Île-de-France, the Société Générale C’est vous l’avenir Foundation (its main sponsor), the Fonds de dotation Françoise Kahn-Hamm and the sponsors who are members of Club Olympe. He is in residence at the Jean-Baptiste Lully Conservatory in Puteaux and at the Arsenal – Cité musicale-Metz. It is also an associate artist in residence at the Fondation Singer-Polignac, as well as an associate ensemble at the Auditorium du Louvre and the Théâtre Sénart. In 2021, the ensemble has begun a four-year crossresidency with the Association pour le Développement des Activités Musicales dans l’Aisne (ADAMA) and the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.

2023/24

 

Julien Chauvin was attracted at an early age by the Baroque revolution and the new wave of historically informed performance practice using period instruments and moved to the Netherlands to train at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Vera Beths, who founded L’Archibudelli with Anner Bylsma.

In 2003, he was a prizewinner at the International Early Music competition in Bruges. Since then he has performed as a soloist in South America, South Africa and Georgia, while at the same time playing in the leading European Baroque ensembles, before founding in 2005 Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, which he directed jointly with Jérémie Rhorer for ten years.

Realising his desire to bring back to life a celebrated ensemble of the eighteenth century, in 2015 he formed a new orchestra, Le Concert de la Loge. The ambitions of this modern recreation have been demonstrated by its exploration of forgotten works from the French orchestral and vocal-operatic repertory and concert formats encouraging spontaneous and imaginative reactions from the audience.

In parallel with this, he continues his collaboration with the Quatuor Cambini-Paris, formed in 2007, with which he performs the string quartets of Jadin, David, Gouvy, Mozart, Gounod and Haydn. Julien Chauvin has also conducted operatic productions such as Era la notte staged by Juliette Deschamps with Anna Caterina Antonacci, Lemoyne’s Phèdre and Isouard’s Cendrillon staged by Marc Paquien for the Palazzetto Bru Zane; Haydn’s Armida directed by Mariame Clément; and Sacchini’s Chimène ou le Cid staged by Sandrine Anglade.

Continuing to investigate the question of direction in the eighteenth-century opera, he recently directed Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail from the violin in a production by Christophe Rulhes.

He has appeared as guest conductor with orchestras and ensembles including the Esterházy Hofkapelle, the Orchestre Régional d’Avignon-Provence, the Orchestre national de Metz, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Limoges, the Orkiestra Historyczna of Katowice, the Folger Consort in Washington D.C., Les Violons du Roy, the Kammerorchester Basel and the Gürzenich-Orchester in Cologne.

Julien Chauvin’s discography includes concertante works by Haydn, Beethoven and Berlioz for the Eloquentia and Ambroisie-Naïve labels. With his ensemble Le Concert de la Loge, he recorded the Haydn’s complete ‘Paris’ Symphonies, which he compared with other works created in Paris in the 1780s. Passionate about the rediscovery of forgotten French repertoire, he recorded the disc “Si j’ai aimé” with Sandrine Piau for the Alpha label. As a soloist, he recorded in 2020 an album of violin concertos for the Vivaldi Edition of the Naïve label which was awarded a Diapason d’or.

He regularly appears in recital with Alain Planès, Christophe Coin, Andreas Staier, Jean-François Heisser, Justin Taylor and Olivier Baumont. He and Baumont recorded the disc ‘À Madame’ at Versailles Palace.

In addition to his concert activities, Julien Chauvin also devotes himself to teaching in orchestral sessions or masterclasses at the Conservatoires Nationaux de Musique et de Danse of both Paris and Lyon, the École Normale de Paris, the Opéra national de Paris Academy and the Orchestre Français des Jeunes.

Julien Chauvin plays on a 1780 Giuseppe Guadagnini violin loaned as part of the “Adopt a Musician” project, an initiative of Music Masterpiece in Lugano.

2023/2024

For further information please visit Le Concert de la Loge