CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)

Music for the Prix de Rome

CD I (57:44)

Ivanhoé
Cantate (Paris, 1864)
01 Prélude
02 Récit: D’où vient que par moment... (Rebecca)
03 Prière: Sion, berceau de mon enfance... (Rebecca)
04 Récit: Rebecca !... (Rebecca, Bois-Guilbert)
05 Air et Récit: Au mont Carmel en Palestine... (Rebecca, Bois-Guilbert)
06 Duo: Juste ciel que j’implore... (Rebecca, Bois-Guilbert)
07 Duo: J’ai prié trop longtemps... (Rebecca, Bois-Guilbert)
08 Trio: Ivanhoé !... Quoi !... Lui !... (Rebecca, Ivanhoé, Bois-Guilbert)
09 Chant et Trio: Oui, malgré mon jeune âge... (Rebecca, Ivanhoé, Bois-Guilbert)
10 Récit: À travers les vitraux... (Rebecca)
11 Air: Près du bûcher en flamme... (Rebecca)
12 Final: Mais que vois-je ?... (Rebecca, Ivanhoé)

Le Retour de Virginie
Cantate (Paris, 1852)
13 Prélude
14 Danse de nègres
15 Récit: Virginie !... (Paul)
16 Air: Échos de mon deuil solitaire... (Paul)
17 Scène et Duo: Mon fils !... Sois heureux... (Marguerite, Paul)
18 Récit et Duo: Mon âme était partie... (Marguerite, Paul)
19 Récit: Amis, entendez-vous la tempête naissante... (Le Missionnaire)
20 Prière: Ô roi des cieux... (Marguerite, Paul, Le Missionnaire)
21 Finale: Entendez-vous ?... (Marguerite, Paul, Le Missionnaire)
22 Finale: Mon fils, elle est au ciel... (Marguerite, Paul, Le Missionnaire)

CD II (56:39)

01 Ode
Chœur (Paris, 1864)

02 Chœur de Sylphes
Chœur (Paris, 1852)

Messe opus 4 (excerpts)
(Paris, 1857)
03 Credo
04 Agnus Dei

Motets au Saint Sacrement
(Paris, 1857)
05 Inviolata en fa majeur (female choir and organ)
06 Tantum Ergo en mi bémol majeur (female choir and organ)
07 Ave Maria en fa majeur (sopranos and organ)
08 O Salutaris en mi majeur (male choir and organ)
09 Deus Abraham en fa majeur (contraltos, tenors and organ)
10 O Salutaris en la bémol majeur (choir without tenors and organ)
11 Ave Maria en la majeur (tenors and organ)
12 Ave Verum en ré majeur (female choir, French horn and organ)

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About this CD

Camille Saint-Saëns and the Prix de Rome... surely a strange bringing together of ideas, given that the composer never gained that coveted award and consequently never took up residence in the famous Villa Medici? All the same, Saint-Saëns entered the competition on two separate occasions and, peculiarly in the history of the competition, twelve years apart: firstly in 1852 and then in 1864. On the first occasion he was still an adolescent, devoted to worshipping the memory of the great Mendelssohn; behind him, by the time of the second occasion, were already a number of his masterpieces later to be confirmed by posterity – and he had become acquainted with Verdi and had also discovered Wagner. If the music he composed for the competition in 1864 was not deemed worthy of being awarded a prize, perhaps that was due to it being full of a troubling and disquieting sense of modernity: there is clearly nothing that the cantata Ivanhoé needs to fear in a comparison with Il Trovatore...

In the period between the two competitions Saint- Saëns concurrently secured for himself a reputation in church music based on a plentiful collection of magnificent motets; proof that it is possible to be successful in religious academicism and unsuccessful in its lyric counterpart (provided we set aside Samson et Dalila!)

Hervé Niquet, the Brussels Philharmonic and Glossa are now presenting the second volume in their survey of music composed for the Prix de Rome with the majority of such pieces being previously unrecorded and definitely demanding to become much better-known.