Orchestre Consuelo was founded in 2019 on the initiative of the cellist and conductor Victor Julien-Laferrière, who chose to place this ambitious project under the tutelary figure of the most musical of novel heroines, created by the most music-loving of novelists, George Sand.
The flexibly sized ensemble, numbering from fifteen to fifty musicians, has set itself the mission of approaching the symphonic repertory through the prism and with the demanding standards of chamber music, under the musical direction of Victor Julien-Laferrière who, by virtue of his passion and musical profile, is at the intersection between those two worlds.
Orchestre Consuelo is composed as much of ‘chamber musicians’, often young and drawn from the finest trios, quartets and quintets, as of instrumentalists from the leading orchestras who have been attracted by this alternative approach. Although it naturally performs the rich repertory for chamber orchestra, the orchestra also aims to bring significant areas of the full orchestral repertory, from Schubert to Mahler by way of Brahms and Ravel, to venues that cannot traditionally accommodate it. Where necessary, this is achieved by means of arrangements for smaller ensemble, often true masterpieces of orchestration in their own right.
In 2022, Orchestre Consuelo was a featured ensemble at La Folle Journée de Nantes, including at the closing concert, which was broadcast live by Arte. Subsequent notable performances during the rest of the season were given at the Comminges Festival with Renaud Capuçon as soloist and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with David Fray.
Among its future concerts, Orchestre Consuelo will return to La Folle Journée de Nantes and appear at the Variations Classiques d’Annecy, La Halle aux Grains in Toulouse, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Festival de l’Epau and the Festival de La Chaise-Dieu.
In addition to its concert activity, Orchestre Consuelo is keen to develop recording projects. The present Brahms disc is the first of these.
