Sophie Koch, Mezzo-soprano – Philippe Jordan, conductor – Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris – March 26, 2010 – Radio France Musique.
From Paris this week, a concert by Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris led by Philippe Jordan and featuring the celebrated mezzo-Soprano Sophie Koch in music by Mendelssohn, Chausson, Britten and Debussy. All recorded and preserved by Radio France Musique on March 26, 2010.
Starting with a performance of Mendelssohn’s Meersstille und glückliche Fahrt (Calm sea and prosperous Voyage) op. 27. It’s followed by Poème de l’amour et de la Mer op. 19 by Chausson with Sophie Koch, soloist. The concert continues with Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten and concludes with Debussy’s La Mer.
Sophie Koch in the late 1990s started to establish a career in leading opera houses as a lyric mezzo-soprano. She is particularly suited to trouser roles. She studied at the Paris Conservatory with the great singer Jane Berbié. She graduated with a First Prize and then won the top prize in the ‘s Hertogenbosch Competition. She began her singing career in France and in the 1997-1998 season debuted as Rosina in The Barber of Seville at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. She followed that up in the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte. (Both operas were conducted by Sir Colin Davis). She has also sung in the Vienna Festwochen, the Bastille Opera in Paris, Dresden’s Semperoper, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala in Milan, and La Monnaie in Brussels. Koch has a very large repertory.
Born in Zürich, the son of conductor Armin Jordan, Philippe Jordan began to study piano at the age of six. At age eight, he joined the Zürcher Sängerknaben. He has acknowledged that he wished to become a conductor, like his father, at age 9. His violin studies began at age 11. At 16, he entered the Zürich Conservatory where he obtained his diploma in piano instruction, with honors. He studied theory and composition with the Swiss composer Hans Ulrich Lehmann and continued his piano studies with Karl Engel. At the same time, he worked as an assistant to Jeffrey Tate on Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Châtelet in Paris.
In the 1994/1995 season, Jordan was appointed first Kapellmeister and assistant to James Allen Gähres at the Theater Ulm. The following year, he made his debut at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. He has since conducted at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Châtelet in Paris, the Semperoper in Dresden and the Aix-en-Provence International Festival.
Enjoy the concert.
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