Louis De Froment - Gluck: Orphee et Euridice (2009)

A conductor who spent most of his career in tiny Luxembourg is hardly a musician one would expect to become well known, but Louis de Froment grew extremely familiar to record collectors thanks to his long association with the Vox label. Born in Toulouse, he studied at the Paris Conservatory, where he won first prize in conducting in 1948. After graduation, Froment conducted one of the French radio orchestras and, from 1950 to 1954, served as music director at the casinos in Cannes, Deauville, and Vichy. He developed a higher profile through work as a guest conductor with a number of European orchestras and appearances at French music festivals. In 1958 he was named conductor of the Luxembourg Radio Orchestra, with which he embarked on an extensive series of recordings for the budget label Vox. Most often he served as accompanist in surveys of the concertos of such composers as Arensky, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikovsky. He and his orchestra were the main attraction in some projects, though, including the orchestral music of Debussy. Froment's performances with his orchestra, if not tonally sleek, tended to be idiomatic and well attuned to the needs of soloists. Froment retired from the orchestra in 1981. -- James Reel