Paris National Orchestra

The Orchestre national de France (French National Orchestra) is a symphony orchestra based in Paris. Founded in 1934, it has become one of the most prestigious orchestras in France, and of the forerunners of the French orchestral tradition, along with the orchestra of the Opéra de Paris. It has been mostly led by renowned French conductors as permanent or invited conductors during its first decades of existence, among them Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, Manuel Rosenthal, Roger Désormière, André Cluytens, Jean Martinon and Charles Munch. It has also been opened progressively to foreign well-known conductors, as Otto Klemperer and Carl Schuricht after the war and, later, Sergiu Celibidache, Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, and current musical director Daniele Gatti. It has been recorded, mainly by EMI Records during the years 1960-1980, in the French repertoire, and more recently mainly by Radio France itself, associated with Naïve Records. Placed under the administration of the French national radio (named Radio France since 1975), the orchestra performes mainly in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées from where all its concerts are broadcast, and during several tours every season, in France and abroad.