CLAUDE DEBUSSY Music for the Prix de Rome
Flemish Radio Choir Brussels PhilharmonicHervé Niquet
GCD 9222062 CDs – digipak
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Performing artists
Flemish Radio Choir Brussels Philharmonic Hervé Niquet, conductor
Guylaine Girard, soprano Sophie Marilley, mezzo-soprano Bernard Richter, tenor Alain Buet, baritone
Marie-Josèphe Jude, piano Jean-François Heisser, piano
Production details
Recorded in Heverlee (Jezuïetenkerk) and Brussels (La Monnaie) in June and July 2009 Engineered by Manuel Mohino Produced by Manuel Mohino and Hervé Niquet Executive producer: Carlos Céster Design: Valentín Iglesias Booklet essays: A. Dratwicki, D. Herlin English Français Deutsch Español
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Commercial release sheet (PDF)
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CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Music for the Prix de Rome
CD I (48:17) Le Gladiateur (1883) Invocation (1883)La Damoiselle élue (1888)
CD II (53:52) Printemps (1887) Le Printemps (1884) Salut Printemps (1882)L’Enfant prodigue (1884)
About this CD
Claude Debussy presented himself as a candidate for the Prix de Rome on three separate occasions during the 1880s, the most innovative decade in the history of that competition; a time when success entitled the victors (at the French government’s expense) to spend several years at the Villa Medici in Rome. Between 1880 and 1890 the French state was successfully encouraging the development of original artistic personalities, breaking with the persistent accusations of “academicism” that had been levelled against it. Names of prize winners from this time include Bruneau, Pierné, Debussy, Dukas, Leroux and Charpentier. Presented on this two CD set is a group of little known compositions by Debussy, dating from between 1882 and 1888: Le Gladiateur and the first versions of L’Enfant prodigue (of which only the 1906 reorchestration is occasionally performed) and Printemps – a highly individual piece (scored for choir and piano, four hands) later turned into a symphonic suite. A version for piano and voice of La Damoiselle élue (which was the only one overseen by Debussy himself) and the choruses written for the competitions of 1882, 1883 and 1884 completethis survey of hitherto unknown works by Debussy.
This release represents the first issue in a new collection from Glossa centred on music associated with the Prix de Rome. This is being prepared in collaboration with the recently formed Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de Musique Romantique Française and with Hervé Niquet, who here is conducting two of Europe’s foremost ensembles: the Flemish Radio Choir and the Brussels Philharmonic.
Hervé Niquet is far less interested in being known as a Baroque music specialist than for his passionate interest in all of French music, especially its vocal and lyrical compositions and nowadays he is as liable to be found directing a symphony orchestra as his own period instrument ensemble Le Concert Spirituel. It may come, for some, as a surprise to find Niquet teaming up with the Brussels Philharmonic to record Debussy but this future release will mark the inauguration of a new adventure for Niquet and Glossa focusing on the music associated with the Prix de Rome competition which drew in scores of leading French composers all the way from 1803 through 1968. [read more...]
For its first DVD release Glossa has chosen a veritable spectacular, combining the strong creative ideas represented by one of its established artistic teams in Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel, the fabulously funny and hugely-successful French comedy duo of Shirley and Dino (Corinne and Gilles Benizio in real life), a film director in Olivier Simonnet with proven experience in the music of the Baroque and a masterpiece of a dramatick operatic score in Henry Purcell’s King Arthur. [read more...]
Taking a leading role in the revival of tragédies lyriques (or tragédies en musique), the best of the French Baroque opera tradition, is a long, daunting (and expensive) challenge but one which Hervé Niquet has been keen to accept. Present as a singer in the chorus of Les Arts Florissants in 1987 when William Christie put on Lully’s Atys, Niquet formed his own ensemble, Le Concert Spirituel that same year. Since that time he has balanced his own endeavours to stage (and record) key French tragédies with his other musical interests, which extend from Monteverdi to Purcell and Handel (soon to be reissued – now on SACD – is Niquet’s recording of the Fireworks and Water Music suites) right the way through to later composers such as Schumann, Gounod and d’Indy.[read more...]
This coming together of two current dynamic musical forces in the Flemish Radio Choir and the Danish conductor Bo Holten in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach signals the latest development in Glossa’s association with the Brussels-based professional choral ensemble, which has already seen the artistry, versatility and flexibility of the 24 singers displayed in Zoltán Kodály’s Missa brevis and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. [read more...]
In the world of choral music the increasingly higher standards reached in recent years by a number of chamber-sized choirs has been a hugely encouraging development. With every intention and capacity to join such an elite group is Glossa’s recent signing, the Vlaams Radio Koor from Belgium – the Flemish Radio Choir. Although the choir has been in existence for 70 years it is only in the last decade or so that it has been able to move itself from being an all-purpose studio-based operation for broadcasting purposes and raise its standards. Such is its success at home that it now acts as a catalyst for amateur choirs in the Flanders region in areas such as repertoire and performance. Additionally it is organizing projects which will be involving students from various Flemish music conservatories. [read more...]