GUSTAVE CHARPENTIER (1860-1956)
Music for the Prix de Rome

CD I (66:18)

01-05 Impressions d’Italie
Symphonie pittoresque (envoi de Rome, 1889)

01 Sérénade
02 À la fontaine
03 À mules
04 Sur les cimes
05 Napoli

06-12 Didon
Cantate (concours pour le prix de Rome, premier grand prix, Paris, 1887)
Soprano, ténor, baryton et orchestre
Texte d’Augé de Lassus

06 Prélude
07 Récit et Air : Seule, me voilà seule ici... (Didon)
08 Récit : Pourquoi cette tristesse ?... (Didon, Énée)
09 Duo : Énée aime Didon, Énée est auprès d’elle... (Didon, Énée)
10 Récit : Le coupable jamais ne repose ou sommeille (Didon, Énée, Anchise)
11 Air : L’avenir glorieux que tu pouvais attendre... (Anchise)
12 Trio : Prends pitié de mes alarmes... (Didon, Énée, Anchise)

CD II (58:39)

01-04 La Vie du poète
Symphonie-drame en trois actes et quatre tableaux (envoi de Rome, 1888)

01 Enthousiasme
02 Doute
03 Impuissance
04 Ivresse

05 La Fête des myrtes
Chœur avec orchestre (concours d’essai pour le prix de Rome, Paris, 1887

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About this CD

To follow his illuminating recordings of music by Claude Debussy and Camille Saint-Saëns with the Brussels Philharmonic, Hervé Niquet is now turning his attention – one gloriously attuned to a broad sweep of French music – away from the Baroque (such as with the recent Campra Le Carnaval de Venise with Le Concert Spirituel) to the dramatic realism of the end of the 19th century.

Gustave Charpentier has, rather unfairly, become known for being the composer of only the one work, that operatic reflection of Zolaesque naturalism, Louise, first performed in 1900. Are people aware that, despite the opera’s working-class Parisian setting of Montmartre, Louise had been composed (at least in part) on one of the seven Roman hills, more than ten years earlier? And that Italian period in Charpentier’s life (1888-1890) had actually turned out to be his most fruitful creative time? It was there in Rome that he worked on two masterly symphonic works, the one elaborating his Impressions d’Italie which was to enjoy significant success right up until the Second World War, whilst the other – more experimental – called for three soloists, a chorus and a large symphonic orchestra: La Vie du poète. It was thanks to the quality of his chorus La Fête des myrtes and his magnificent Wagnerian cantata Didon that the composer won, in 1887, the famous Prix de Rome, opening the way for him to have a Bohemian séjour in the Villa Medici.

This third release in the Prix de Rome series by Glossa (in conjunction with the Palazzetto Bru Zane) is set to demonstrate a composer whose range of talents far extends beyond the – admittedly enchanting – aria Depuis le jour...