In Angers, the **Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire** (ONPL), led by musical director Sascha Goetzel, is performing a special program featuring pianist Lucas Debargue and the rarely heard ballet **Soirées musicales** by Benjamin Britten. The concert is taking place at the Centre des Congrès d'Angers, which has been chosen for its superior acoustics compared to the Nantes Auditorium Debussy. The Cité des Congrès in Nantes is expected to reopen in 2028, but for now, Angers hosts the event. The program includes Britten's **Soirées musicales**, an opus 9 composed around melodies by Gioachino Rossini, which consists of five lively pieces. This work highlights the quality of the orchestra's timbres and musicians, with Jueun Jeong making his debut at the first violin stand. The ensemble's performance is described as flexible and colorful, with a well-developed Tirolese central section handled in a grotesque manner by the Austrian conductor. Lucas Debargue took the keyboard after a short stage change, demonstrating a light texture in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, although his finger pressure on the keyboard remains significant. The atmosphere shifted from the joyful first part to a more concentrated ambiance. Sascha Goetzel's approach to handling the climates and their associated colors, rather than pushing the piece into darkness, was successful, particularly in the mastery of the crescendo at the end of the first movement. The Scherzo showcased Debargue's technical skills, though he did not attempt to race with other pianists such as Yundi Li and Yuja Wang. The Intermezzo was performed at a deliberate slow pace, with the conductor thickening the strings, reminiscent of the grotesque opening of **Soirées musicales** but rendered in a more disturbing way in the Russian concerto. The French soloist's colorful playing was complemented by the winds of the ONPL, which reminded listeners of the musical air from the time of the composition in 1913, the year of **The Rite of Spring** in Paris. The strings of the ensemble were noted for their good concentration and current form. The encores featured pieces related to George Gershwin, as Lucas Debargue has recently released an album around the composer. He performed two pieces, including an improvisation that quickly identified the theme "Summertime." In the second part of the program, Sascha Goetzel conducted two symphonic poems by Richard Strauss. In **Death and Transfiguration** op.24, the first crescendo demonstrated the underlying work on the material, developed from a solid first solo of the horn. The Meno mosso section evoked the Austrian roots of the conductor, who placed seven Austrian-style double basses in a single line at the back. The clarity of the winds carried several beautiful moments, up to the climax of the great development and its extinction, well accompanied by the transparency of the violins and the harp. **Till E' the Trickster** op.28 closed the evening with a more playful style, benefiting the horn, but this time more from the B flat clarinet played by Sabrina Moulaï. The flexibility of the French ensemble and its precision in following the conductor were appreciated, with an even greater interest in listening to the story through its different atmospheres, up to the execution, which was not botched.