The Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, OSM) has signed a five-year contract with Decca, renewing a relationship that dates back three decades. Under the terms of the new arrangement, the OSM and its Music Director Kent Nagano will record two albums this year. This month they have recorded L’Aiglon: Son of Napoleon, an operetta with music by Jacques Ibert (Acts 1 and 5) and Arthur Honegger (Acts 2-4), based on a play by Edmond Rostand that tells the story of Napoleon’s son who was known as L’Aiglon (the eaglet).

In October they will record a programme with a Halloween theme: Ives’s Halloween, Dvořák’s Noonday Witch, Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Balakirev’s Tamara, Saint-Saëns’Danse macabre and Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain.