Thierry Escaich - Te Deum pour Notre-Dame (Alain Altinoglu)

Information

Composer: Thierry Escaich

• Te Deum pour Notre-Dame
• Versets improvisés à l'orgue

Thierry Escaich, organ

Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris

NFM Choir

Frankfurt Radio Symphony

Alain Altinoglu, conductor

Date: 2025

Label: Alpha Classics

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Thierry Escaich (born 1965) is a renowned French organist, composer, and improviser. Trained at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he now teaches, he has won numerous top awards and is widely celebrated for both performance and composition. Since 1996, he has served as organist at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris and tours internationally. Escaich has written over 100 works, spanning orchestral, chamber, vocal, and organ music, and has collaborated with leading ensembles and soloists around the world. His interests include film music and ballet, such as his score for Why am I not where you are for New York City Ballet. In 2024, he became a head organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Escaich’s Te Deum pour Notre-Dame was composed for the 2025 reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, celebrating its rebirth after the devastating fire. Written for children’s choir, two mixed choirs, and orchestra, the large-scale work was premiered and recorded in the cathedral on 12 June 2025 with 180 performers. Escaich drew inspiration from scripture as well as writers like Victor Hugo and Charles Péguy, creating a dramatic journey from destruction to spiritual renewal. As co-titular organist of Notre-Dame, he also improvised between movements. The premiere was widely praised, with critics calling it the major French oratorio of the 21st century.

Born in Paris in 1975, Alain Altinoglu studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he now teaches conducting. He serves as Music Director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Artistic Director of the Festival International de Colmar. Acclaimed for his expressive and insightful leadership, Altinoglu regularly conducts many of the world’s foremost orchestras and appears at leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, and Covent Garden. Also an active recitalist with mezzo-soprano Nora Gubisch, he records for major international labels.