Thierry Escaich has been awarded the Composer of the Year for the fourth time at the 24th annual Les Victoires de la Musique Classique Awards for his oratorio Cris. The annual French classical music awards celebrate the best of French Classical music; the other nominees in the composer category were Bruno Mantovani for String Quartet No.3 and Martin Matalon for his opera L’Ombre de Veneceslao.
Cris was premiered on 19 June 2016 by Pierre Val as narrator, Les Cris de Paris, Trio K/D/M and Nomos Cello ensemble conducted by Geoffroy Jourdain. It was written to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Verdun, one of the largest and longest battles of the First World War on the Western Front, and takes inspiration from Laurent Gaudé’s novel Cris.
