Pygmalion

Biography

Pygmalion, the combined choir and period-instrument orchestra founded by Raphael Pichon in 2006, explores the filiations that link Bach to Mendelssohn, Schütz to Brahms, and Rameau to Gluck and Berlioz.

Alongside the great repertory works of which it offers a reinterpretation (Bach’s Passions, Rameau’s tragédies lyriques, Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Mendelssohn’s Elias, the Monteverdi Vespers), Pygmalion endeavours to construct original programmes that shed light on the multiple correspondences between works while restoring the spirit of their creation: these include Mozart and the Weber Sisters, Miranda on music by Purcell, Stravaganza d’amore, which evokes the birth of opera at the court of the Medici, Enfers with Stéphane Degout, and the cycle Bach en sept paroles at the Philharmonie de Paris.

For the operatic works it performs, Pygmalion collaborates with such directors as Katie Mitchell, Aurélien Bory, Simon McBurney, Jetske Mijnssen, Pierre Audi and Michel Fau.

In residence at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, Pygmalion regularly performs in the leading musical centres in France (Philharmonie de Paris, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Opéra Comique, Aix-en-Provence, Beaune, Toulouse, Saint-Denis, La Chaise-Dieu, Royaumont, Nancy, Metz, Montpellier etc.) and abroad (Cologne, Frankfurt, Essen, Vienna, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Brussels etc.).

Pygmalion has recorded for harmonia mundi since 2014. Its discography has received critical plaudits in the French and international press, with such prizes as the Choc de Classica, Gramophone Award and Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.