The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has entered into a new recording partnership with the French independent, Harmonia Mundi, the label’s first major project with a North American orchestra. The first release will be of Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie with pianist Marc-André Hamelin and ondes Martenot-player Nathalie Forget. The recording will be released in February next year. (The Turangalîla was, incidentally, the work with which the TSO made its first commercial recording – in 1968 under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, for RCA.)

Two further recordings will be released: Stravinsky’s Pulcinella ballet, alongside a work by the Canadian Kelly-Marie Murphy, and Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, alongside a work by another Canadian, Emilie LeBel.

‘The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is very excited to be the first North American orchestra to partner with Harmonia Mundi,’ said the Orchestra’s CEO Mark Williams. ‘The inaugural recording of this partnership — the Turangalîla-Symphonie, among the greatest compositions of the 20th century — reflects the ebullient energy of today’s Toronto Symphony under the exceptional musical leadership of Gustavo Gimeno, while paying homage to our storied history.’