TOP PROGRAMMERS: TOP 3 ALBUMS 2023 – Renaud Loranger, Festival de Lanaudière

PAN M 360 asked its partners to provide a list of the top 3 albums of 2023. Several artistic directors graciously agreed!

Artistic Director of the Festival de Lanaudière, Quebec-born Renaud Loranger was appointed Vice President, Artists & Repertoire (A&R) at Pentatone in 2016, and has since steered many of the prestigious European label’s international operations. Among the artists contracted during his tenure, his biographical profile tells us, are maestros Vladimir Jurowski, René Jacobs and Esa-Pekka Salonen, singers Piotr Beczala, Lisette Oropesa, Javier Camarena and Magdalena Kožená, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Francesco Piemontesi, as well as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

Previously, Renaud Loranger was executive producer in Deutsche Grammophon’s A&R division. For the label, he coordinated opera productions and solo recordings by such vocal luminaries as Anna Netrebko, Elina Garanca, Piotr Beczala, Franco Fagioli and Bryn Terfel, as well as conductors René Jacobs and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. At the same time, he directed Archiv Produktion, then Deutsche Grammophon France.

In November 2018, Renaud Loranger was awarded the artistic direction of the all-important Festival de Lanaudière, in his hometown of Joliette. He has certainly helped re-launch Lanaudière as Canada’s classical festival par excellence and one of the few international crossroads in North America. What’s more, he sits on numerous juries for international singing competitions. Based in Berlin, he constantly commutes between Germany, the Netherlands and Quebec.

Renaud Loranger studied musicology, art history and comparative literature at the Université de Montréal before working for various artists’ agencies. After moving to Berlin in 2010, he worked for the Financial Times, WFMT-Chicago, CBC Radio and La Presse. After a spell in the communications department of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano, he assisted Patrice Chéreau on Janáček’s From the House of the Dead at the Metropolitan Opera. He was a founding member of the European Opera Think Tank, a joint initiative of Gerard Mortier and Opera Europa.

Francesco Piemontesi, piano / Liszt: Sonate en si mineur et Études d’exécution transcendantes / Pentatone (classique, période romantique)

“For the remarkable editorial coherence, which renews listening and broadens our perception of these extraordinary masterpieces, between gravitas and pure virtuosity.”

Maria Callas, soprano / Callas In All Her Roles / Warner Classics (classique)

“In keeping with the centenary, this luxurious boxed set is a must-have, both for Callas admirers and for those wishing to discover one of the most important artists of the last century.”

William Christie et Les Arts Florissants, Haendel: L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Harmonia Mundi (classique, baroque)

“An exceptional recording of a work never before recorded by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, the centerpiece of their Lanaudière debut in 2022.”