Ensemble de L'Encyclopédie, Florent Albrecht

Biography

Founded at the end of 2020 by the French fortepianist and conductor Florent Albrecht, the Ensemble de L’Encyclopédie, named for the 18th-century French Encyclopedia whose writers helped to form the Enlightment, and inspired by the wish to renew the experience of listening to music of the classical and pre-Romantic periods. began life on the shores of Lake Geneva, Since 2022 it is also active inside France, pursuing its goals of development and artistic identity on both sides of the border.
Stimulated by a spirit of exploration and scholarly rigour, L’Encyclopédie has adopted a practice of historically informed interpretation, nurtered by early manuscript and printed sources and treatises, and using the instruments of the period. This living and expressive approach enables the Ensemble to breathe freedom, clarity and intensity into every work.
With its flexible size and shape, the Encyclopédie can adapt to the demands of every kind of work, allowing it to explore all the genres: chamber music, symphonic repertoire, opera and oratorio. Its musicians count among the finest specialist performers of historic instruments, who are also regularly invited to perform with renowned ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, and Pygmalion.
The Ensemble intersperses the well-known masterpieces (e.g. by Haydn, Mozart and Schubert) with works that are rare and neglected, picked out for their stylistic richness and expressiveness. Each programme is conceived as an invitation to a journey, guided by musical criteria and in a spirit of openness.
In less than five years the Ensemble de L’Encyclopédie has appeared in venues as prestigious as the Victoria Hall and Ernest Ansermet Hall in Geneva, the Parc Floral de Paris, as well as the ‘Bach en Combrailles’ Festival and the Agapé Festival.
This first recording of theirs for harmonia mundi, dedicated to Leopold and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, marks an important stage in the Ensemble’s career, affirming its presence in the European landscape of period instrument performance.

Decisive encounters with Paul Badura-Skoda, Charles Rosen and Malcolm Bilson have marked the artistic pathway of Florent Albrecht, who in 2018 received the support of the Fondation Royaumont.
After entering Geneva’s Haute École de Musique as a late developer, he graduated top of his class, beginning his musical career with an unusual degree of maturity won from previous professional experience in the luxury and cultural administration sectors.
A totally committed musician with a lively sense of curiosity, he has partnered with leading artists such as Giuliano Carmignola, Christophe Coin, Amandine Beyer, Jodie Devos, Sophie Karthäuser and Anna Reinhold, as well as conductors such as Chiara Banchini, Alexis Kossenko and Václav Luks. He is regularly invited to appear with such prestigious ensembles as the French National Orchestra and Les Ambassadeurs - La Grande Écurie.
As a soloist as well as a performer of chamber music – for which he has a particular love – Florent Albrecht has appeared in international venues such the Barbican Centre in London, l’Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, the Isarphilharmonie in Munich, the Juilliard School New York, le Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris Opera, the Paris Philharmonie, and the Victoria Hall in Geneva. He has also taken part in many renowned festivals such as the Nohant Chopin Festival, the Festival du Parc Floral, ‘Bach en Combrailles’ and the Normandy Early Music Festival at Arques-la-Bataille.
In Geneva at the end of 2020 he founded the Ensemble de L’Encyclopédie, dedicated to exploring Enlightenment and pre-Romantic music, using a both rigorous and inventive process of historically informed interpretation. The ensemble also located itself in France at the invitation of the City of Paris.
Florent’s first two recordings, devoted to John Field’s Nocturnes and the Fantasies of Mozart, have both been enthusiastically received by the critics.
www.florentalbrecht.com