À la Nuit
Intimate, sensitive and flamboyant… This programme, meticulously devised by clarinettist Franck Russo, highlights the great vocality of the chamber music of Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Beyond the notes, the texts of the lieder chosen resonate in a resolutely romantic way: love, night and nature as refuge unite each piece on this recording. In duet or trio, the piano, the voice’s companion in the Lieder, works in perfect harmony with the three different clarinets used on this recording.
© Hubert Caldaguès
Franck Russo
Born in 1986, Franck Russo is currently Principal Clarinet of the Orchester Symphonique de l’Opéra de Toulon Provence Méditerranée. It was at the CRR in Rueil-Malmaison that he began his professional studies with Florent Héau, winning a 1st prize, a prize of excellence and a 1st prize for chamber music in the class of Michel Moraguès in 2006. The same year , he was unanimously received at the CNSM in Paris, in the class of Michel Arrignon, a true Master of the French School. He obtained his prize there with Jérôme Julien-Laférière with honors.
Winner of the Banque Populaire and Meyer foundations as well as numerous international competitions (Printemps de Prague, Classic Winds in Hamburg and Tel Aviv, Debussy in Paris, Nielsen in Denmark, Lancelot in Rouen and Tokyo), Franck won 3rd prize, the prize for public and the “Young Talent of the Nocturnes de la Cathédrale de Rouen” prize at the 1st Jacques Lancelot International Competition as well as a special prize for the best interpretation of Claude Debussy’s Rhapsody at the 2014 Tokyo Competition. Prague, just before joining the Orchestra, he won the 3rd prize in the prestigious competition. In March 2020, just before the pandemic, he won the 1st prize and special prize for the piece “Verdiana” by Alexey Shor at the “Classic Winds” competition in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Passionate about chamber music, he followed the lessons of Daria Hovora in sonata with the pianist Pierre-Yves Hodica. The duo then formed won the Grand Prix of the city of Le Havre at the Forum Musical de Normandie, and obtained a 1st prize at the CNSMDP. Among other numerous concerts and festivals, they also took part in the program “Plaisirs d’amour” hosted by Frédéric Lodéon on France Musique, or “énérations Jeunes Interprètes” by Gaëlle Legallic.
He recorded his first album “A la Nuit” / “In der Nacht” around Schumann and Schubert. For this project, he chose to surround himself with talented artists: Laurianne Corneille at the piano, Schumanian recognized by critics, who released her first Schumann record on Klarthe Records “L’Hermaphrodite”, and Lia Naviliat-Cuncic soprano an artist with multiple faces and facets, equally at ease in the baroque, sacred, contemporary, classical, German and French lied repertoire, and even folk! The disc will be released in the fall of 2022! There will be a Launch concert on January 14, 2023 at 8 p.m. at the Sallae Cortot in Paris, Franck will also share the stage with the magnificent lyric Soprano Erminie Blondel with her disc around composers from the Shoah…
Franck has also invested in the teachings of David Walter and Henry Fourès in the clarinet quartet. He therefore arranges for this group various pieces by classical composers inspired by different folklore, notably from Eastern Europe, and wins the 1st prize at the 26th European Competition for Ensemble Music FNAPEC 2012 in Paris. The Quartet obtains its prize unanimously with honors with the congratulations of the jury before winning a Master’s degree. The ensemble will be releasing their 1st album very soon.
He collaborates with various professional orchestras, such as the Opéra de Marseille, Régional de Cannes, Sécession Orchestra, Symphonique de Bretagne, Pau Pays de Béarn, Picardie… directed by Alain Altinoglu, Dmitri Jurowski, Dennis Russell Davies, Jean-Claude Casadesus , Arie Van Beek, Rani Calderon, Valerio Galli, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Serge Baudo, Krystof Penderecki, Olari Elts, Emmanuel Krivine…
He is also involved in La Compagnie Traintamarre de 7h10 which brings together the performing arts, music, theatre, poetry and storytelling. After more than 90 performances of “Contes de l’Isba” a musical journey in Eastern Europe. Franck is currently working on the development of a new show around the Quatuor pour la fin du temps by Olivier Messiaen…
Lia Naviliat Cuncic
Lia Naviliat Cuncic was introduced to music at an early age at the CRR de Caen and began her postgraduate studies at the Maîtrise de Notre Dame de Paris in 2009, then at the CRR de Paris in the class of Fusako Kondo.
She obtained her Master’s degree in opera singing from the Musik Hochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Christine Schäfer. During her training she was taught by Alain Buet, Howard Crook, Margreet Hönig, Anne Le Bozec and Mitsuko Shirai.
The young soprano has a particular fondness for the Lied repertoire and decided to continue her studies in Germany in 2015, where she was taught by Regina Werner (Musik Hochscule Leipzig) Wolfram Rieger and Thomas Quastoff. She has given recitals at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Chartres as part of the Carré d’As Jeunes Talents Festival, at Michigan State University, at the Festival des Heures Romantiques and at the Mendelssohn-Remise in Berlin.
Lia was noticed in 2016 at the 9th edition of the Concours International de Chant Lyrique de Canari, where she won the young hope prize. That same year, she won the TALENTE CAMPUS competition in Berlin. She is a laureate and mediator of the Yehudi Menuhin Live Musik Now Berlin institution from 2015 to 2021.
She performs as a soloist with the Philarmonischer Chor and the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle (dir. Jörg-Peter Weigle) in programmes including Bach’s Magnificat, Zelenka’s Te Deum and Handel’s Israel in Egypt.
