Disques Montaigne (French pronunciation: [disk mɔ̃tɛɲ]) was a French classical record company founded in 1987 by Pierre Lebaillif, an official in charge of cultural sponsorship at the state owned bank Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, and also vice-président of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.[1] Lebaillif's intention was to make available to a wider public some valuable archive and live recordings. Lebaillif, had the original radio tapes from the 1950s and 60s cleaned up and digitally remastered by a renowned French recording engineer Pierre Verany, but rather than release them on Verany's own label (which specialised in early music), he created a new label for the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Although specialized the label's releases were well received.[2] Among the rarities recovered by Labaillif was Manuel Rosenthal's performance of Darius Milhaud's rare opera Christophe Colomb and D. E. Inghelbrecht's performance of Pelleas et Melisande sung by Jacques Jansen and Micheline Grancher. Lebaillif died three years after founding the label,[3] but the label continued to be active during the 1990s releasing mainly contemporary classical music such as the Arditti Quartet's recordings of György Kurtág, but also occasional older music such as Malgoire's recording of Lully's opera Alceste.[4] The catalogue of Montaigne was later acquired by Louis Bricard's independent label Auvidis,[5] which then itself was acquired by Naive Records.
References edit
- ^ Diapason harmonie - Issues 356-361 - Page 14 1990 "Chargé du mécénat à la Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations et vice-président du Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Pierre Lebaillif fit en 1987 une entrée très remarquée dans le domaine du disque en créant les disques Montaigne à partir des .."
- ^ New York Times [1] "Now, a major new cache of French radio material has become available to patrons of speciality classical-music stores. It consists of 10 compact-disk sets, each containing two or three CD's of performances mostly from the 1950s and 60s recorded by the French national radio network at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris."
- ^ Le Monde de la musique 1990 "Pierre Lebaillif vient de disparaître et avec lui l'un des artisans les plus intelligents du mécénat en France. Avec la complicité de Robert Lion, il redora l'image de la Caisse des dépôts et consignations dans le domaine du développement local et de la lutte pour l'insertion. ... exemplaire du théâtre des Champs-Elysées ainsi que la naissance de la collection des disques Montaigne. Quel hommage lui rendre aujourd'hui sinon de pérenniser son œuvre !"
- ^ New Art Examiner - Volume 21, Issues 1-6 - Page 46 1993 "Instead they are busy completing a huge series of releases on the Parisian label Disques Montaigne, including performances of works by major European and American avant-garde composers. Several stellar collections provide a varied way .."
- ^ International Record Review - Volume 1, Issues 7-12 - Page 137 2000 "Initially an independent entity, Disques Montaigne was soon incorporated into Auvidis, and hardly a month went by in the mid-1990s without releases to introduce new composers, or broaden representation of others.