Ludovic Morlot

Artist ∙ Classical

Conductor Ludovic Morlot has a wide repertory but has specialized in 20th century music to a degree unusual among conductors of major symphony orchestras. Morlot landed a post as conductor-in-residence at the Orchestre National de Lyon. He returned to the U.S. as the assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony: he became the conductor of the Seattle Symphony in 2011, also serving as the chief conductor of the opera house La Monnaie in Brussels from 2011 to 2015. In 2014, Morlot made his recording debut, leading the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of La Monnaie. In 2020, he was appointed artistic director of the National Youth Orchestra of China, and in 2022, he became principal conductor of the Barcelona Symphony and National Orchestra of Catalonia. Morlot returned to the Seattle Symphony in 2023, leading a performance of Messiaen's Des canyons aux étoiles.

September 29, 2014 at PDT
John Luther Adams: Become Ocean
John Luther Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning orchestral piece Become Ocean was premiered in 2013 by conductor Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony, and this hypnotic recording was made a few months later. It catches grippingly the epic, slow-moving sweep of Adams’ vision of the ocean, inviting listeners both to immerse themselves in it, and contemplate the environmental destruction which humanity is causing. Written in a single, 42-minute movement, Become Ocean at times recalls the nature music of Wagner, Richard Strauss and Debussy, while firmly establishing its own monumental sense of scale and idiom. Morlot and the Seattle players respond with an interpretation of rippling luminosity, which it is difficult to imagine being bettered.
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June 13, 2019 at PDT
John Luther Adams: Become Desert
John Luther Adams won a Pulitzer for his 2013 orchestral work Become Ocean, highlighting the threat of rising seas from melting ice caps. In his 40-minute, one-movement Become Desert, Adams turns his attention to our parched landscapes. This is music that embodies the sweltering sun, the morning dew evaporating with the dawn, and the airless environment. Adams’ expansive music—scored for five ensembles (and choir), each moving at different speeds—swells and dissipates, growing inexorably. The music reaches suffocating levels of intensity at its climax, brass piercing the textures like waves of heat. Night, and relief from the sun, eventually come, a tiny bell ringing out as the sun drops below the horizon.
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September 24, 2020 at PDT
John Luther Adams: The Become Trilogy
3 Tracks
June 8, 2015 at PDT
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 "New World" - Varèse: Amériques
5 Tracks
June 9, 2014 at PDT
Fauré: Masques et bergamasques & Pelléas et Mélisande
18 Tracks
September 17, 2020 at PDT
Become River - EP
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July 19, 2018 at PDT
Berio: Sinfonia - Boulez: Notations I-IV - Ravel: La valse, M. 72
Three major orchestral scores from the 20th century. Ravel’s intoxicating La Valse of 1920 portrays the gradual decay of society as seen through that quintessentially Viennese dance, the waltz. Morlot captures the work’s nightmare dissolution with real character. Written for piano in 1945, and orchestrated in 1977-78, Pierre Boulez’s four Notations are fascinating glimpses into his modernist mind, strikingly original yet owing much to the past. Luciano Berio’s masterpiece of 1968-69, Sinfonia, also draws on the past, yet does so with astounding virtuosity and wit. Morlot really gets under its skin and coaxes playing of great accomplishment from his musicians.
10 Tracks
June 8, 2017 at PDT
Ives: New England Holidays & Orchestral Sets Nos. 1 & 2
Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra summon a magical set of distinctly American impressions. Morlot is a sorcerer with this kind of music, finding balance between the work’s myriad events: ominous strings cast dour moods, while woodwinds interject with unanswered questions.
10 Tracks
September 20, 2018 at PDT
James Newton Howard, Aaron Jay Kernis: Violin Concertos – Bramwell Tovey: 'Stream of Limelight'
Coruscating, fluid playing illuminates three world premieres.
7 Tracks
November 10, 2016 at PST
Stravinsky: The Firebird - Vladimir Nikolaev: The Sinewaveland (Live)
Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony continue to settle into their niche as some of the greatest contemporary interpreters of impressionism and modernism, this time taking up Stravinsky’s classic 1910 Firebird Suite. One hundred years later, the ballet sounds as mighty and ominous as ever.
16 Tracks
June 9, 2016 at PDT
Stravinsky: Petrushka - Debussy: La boîte à joujoux, L. 128
In this unique pairing, Ludovic Morlot brings stunning modernist ballets by Stravinsky and Debussy to life. Considered one of the unequivocal stables of his Russian period, Stravinsky’s Petrushka embodies the composer’s playful lyricism and radical orchestration, and the dynamic Seattle Symphony Orchestra showcases these qualities beautifully, from the bright, explosive woodwind runs to the jolting, soaring brass chords. Here, the eponymous hero’s plight seems as tragic and affecting as ever. Their production of Debussy’s La boîte à joujoux sparkles with the composer’s signature cloudy harmonies and elusive melodies, with Morlot evoking a typically charming performance from his orchestra.
10 Tracks
January 7, 2016 at PST
Ives: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4, The Unanswered Question & Central Park in the Dark
After commissioning John Luther Adams' Pulitzer Prize-winning “Become Ocean,” conductor Ludovic Morlot and his Seattle players had a right to be ambitious. Ives’ final (completed) symphony is just the right lodestar for musicians so inclined. In the first movement, they get the balance between odd percussion, eerie strings, and swirling chorus just right. The chaotic, wild-like-nothing-you’ve-heard second movement comes through with an admirable clarity, too, while also delivering the noise. Solid interpretations of two shorter Ives works and the composer’s good-humored (but still delightfully odd) Symphony No. 3 complete the vibrant program.
9 Tracks
July 25, 2019 at PDT
Marc-André Dalbavie: La source d'un regard & Concertos
4 Tracks
March 31, 2014 at PDT
Ravel: Orchestral Works - Saint-Saëns: Organ Symphony
10 Tracks
August 13, 2015 at PDT
Dutilleux: Métaboles, L'arbre des songes & Symphony No. 2 "Le double"
12 Tracks
November 16, 2023 at PST
Messiaen: From the Canyons to the Stars...
12 Tracks
August 11, 2016 at PDT
Dutilleux: Orchestral Works
In this collection of ominous and brilliant large-scale works, Ludovic Morlot and the dynamic Seattle Symphony Orchestra unravel the French composer’s meticulous orchestrations. Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto is an unhinged exploration of growth and regeneration, while the thrilling, experimental Second Symphony draws from the Baroque concerto grosso tradition.
34 Tracks
January 24, 2019 at PST
Berlioz: Les nuits d'été – Ravel: Shéhérazade – Adams: Le livre de Baudelaire (After Debussy's L. 64)
13 Tracks
September 13, 2018 at PDT
Berlioz: Requiem, Op. 5, H. 75 & La mort d'Orphée, H. 25 (Live)
11 Tracks
March 31, 2014 at PDT
Dutilleux: Symphony No. 1 - Tout un monde lointain - The Shadows of Time
15 Tracks
March 31, 2014 at PDT
Ives: Symphony No. 2 - Carter: Instances - Gershwin: An American in Paris
7 Tracks
August 11, 2016 at PDT
Dutilleux: Sur le même accord, Les citations, Mystère de l'instant & Timbres, espace, mouvement
7 Tracks
August 17, 2017 at PDT
Messiaen: Poèmes pour Mi and 3 Petites liturgies de la Présence Divine
12 Tracks
April 4, 2024 at PDT
Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works, Vol. 1
19 Tracks
November 10, 2014 at PST
Raskatov: Piano Concerto "Night Butterflies" - Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Live)
26 Tracks

Ludovic Morlot

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