Elena Schwarz wins Opus Klassik award for Barraine

Elena Schwarz and WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln have been awarded the Opus Klassik for World Premiere Recording of the Year for their acclaimed recording of music by French composer Elsa Barraine, on CPO.

The release is the first commercial recording of Barraine's First and Second Symphonies, written in 1931 and 1938 respectively. Barraine (1910–1999) entered the Paris Conservatoire aged 12 and studied composition with Paul Dukas, winning the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1929. A committed anti-fascist, she joined the French Resistance during the Second World War, and after the war became an important pedagogue, teaching analysis and sight-reading at the Paris Conservatoire, but her work has remained largely neglected. 

Diapason awarded the release a Diapason d'Or and wrote of it: '[Barraine's] two symphonies, rescued from oblivion by Elena Schwarz in Cologne, prove to be in no way inferior to those of Roussel, Milhaud, or Honegger. And yet, this is their first recording.'

The Times selected the CD among the best of 2025 and wrote, 'Barraine had a real gift for music of anxiety and mourning. Not that this in any way is a depressing album: how could it be with unfamiliar music of this stature, and performances of this colour and fire?'

The prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Berlin's Konzerthaus in October.