Mass by Gounod and Saint-Saëns

Sacred Saint-Saëns, centenary of his death

With this program, Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel wish to highlight the rarely performed sacred works of 19th century French composers, whose operas are nowadays mostly known to the public.

Hervé Niquet has put together a program mixing traditional Gregorian antiphons and rare works by Gounod and Saint-Saëns, all marked by the same neo-classical approach.
Gounod's Messe Vocale, which he says he "worked on in the style of the Sistine Chapel" and he wrote in 1842, and Saint-Saëns's Messe opus 4, the first large-scale work of the musician to have an opus number, because it was the first one that he considered to be truly traditional, premiered (also with honors! ) in the church of Saint-Merri in 1857; but also lesser-known works by the two masters, such as Les sept paroles de notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, composed in 1855, rarely performed and yet described by its dedicatee as "so admirable in its breadth and simplicity," or Saint-Saëns' Veni Creator, the first work composed after his appointment as organist of the church of La Madeleine in 1858, which is at once luminous and introspective.