Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in January.Ah, a conductor with benefits. Riding the train called Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Philadelphia Orchestra said it will release its first recording on a major label in 16 years, on Deutsche Grammophon. Mr. Nézet-Séguin is the orchestra’s new music director, a rising star in the conducting world who has been recording for Deutsche Grammophon since 2008.
The record deal shows how a highly touted conductor’s luster can bring extras. Mr. Seguin is in the middle of recording seven Mozart operasfor Deutsche Grammophon and has an agreement for three orchestral recordings as conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, another orchestra he leads. The Philadelphia deal comes to an orchestra that only recently emerged from bankruptcy court and is struggling to re-establish its footing.
The orchestra said it would record Stravinsky’s 100-year-old “Rite of Spring,†which had its first United States performance in 1922 - by the Philadelphians under Leopold Stokowski. (The “Rite†is not exactly under-represented on disc: Decca recently released a box set of 37 recordings of the work.) The Philadelphia Orchestra release will also include Stokowski’s orchestra transcriptions of three Bach organ works.
