Jean-François Paillard

Baroque music owes the rediscovery and availability of a whole repertoire to this sacred monster of the baton. Trained at the Paris Conservatoire and the Salzburg Mozarteum, Jean-François Paillard (1928-2013) laid the foundations for the Baroque revival, which had fallen into disuse two centuries earlier, with the Ensemble instrumental Jean-Marie Leclair, which became the Orchestre de Chambre in 1959. From 1953 onwards, the orchestra's success continued unabated. The conductor toured the world with his favorite musicians Maurice André, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Marie-Claire Alain and Pierre Pierlot, and made countless recordings of Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Corelli, Pachelbel, Charpentier, Albinoni and more. Out of 5600 concerts, 1480 are devoted to Vivaldi's Four Seasons concerto. Flagship of the Erato label for 32 years, he conducted over 300 recordings for a total of 9 million units sold. Overtaken by the new wave of Baroque music played on period instruments, Jean-François Paillard gradually fell into oblivion before passing away peacefully on April 15, 2013 at the age of 85.