Less Familiar French Sacred Music

Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of A440)

This coming Friday, Alpha will release a new album of French sacred music from the nineteenth century performed by Le Concert Spirituel, whose leader is Hervé Niquet. As is usually the case, Amazon.com has created a Web page, which is processing pre-orders. Most readers are likely to guess that the album will include Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 48 setting of the Requiem text. They will be correct, but the remaining three selections on the album are decidedly less familiar.

The other major work on the album is another Mass setting composed by Charles Gounod in 1890 and given the title Mess dite de Clovis, whose thematic material is based on Gregorian Chant sources. Its IMSLP Web page gives the following alternative title: “Composée pour le XIVe Centenaire du Baptême de Clovis à Reims, 25 Décembre 496.” It was scored for SATB choir and organ and included a “Prélude” for four trumpets, four trombones, and two organs (one full pipe organ and a smaller one for the chorus); but this opening movement is not included on the album. The setting of the Mass text is a straightforward one, and Niquet delivers an expressive interpretation.

This is followed by the “O salutaris hostia” hymn composed by Louis Aubert. Aubert was a child prodigy, who drew attention from his rendition of the solo part in the “Pie Jesu” movement of Fauré’s Requiem setting. He later became Fauré’s composition student at the Conservatoire de Paris. This track was a “first contact” experience for me, as I expect it will be for most (if not all) other listeners. The album concludes with an instrumental postlude, an Adagio movement compsed by André Caplet for violin with organ accompaniment. The organist for the album is François Saint-Yves, and the violinist for this selection is Chouchane Siranossian.

I must confess that, following the opening seven tracks of Fauré, this album was very much a journey of discovery. Each of the three remaining compositions takes its own unique rhetorical stance. Nevertheless, they are all given a relatively subdued account, which very much reflects the mood established at the beginning. One might say that all of the works were conceived as music for reflection, drawing away from any of the more dramatic rhetorics that one often encounters in sacred music.

In consulting my collection, I realized that I have only one other recording of Fauré’s Opus 48. It dates back to 1985 with Michel Plasson conducting and vocal solos by soprano Barbara Hendrix and baritone José van Dam. On that album it was coupled with Fauré’s Opus 11 “Cantique de Jean Racine.” While that conjunction made for its own journey of discovery when I first acquired the album, I have to say that I am more drawn to the diversity on this new release.