Vocal masses by Gounod & Saint-Saëns

With this programme, Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel wish to highlight rarely performed sacred works by French composers of the 19th century, whose operas are the most familiar to audiences today. Hervé Niquet has put together an original programme combining traditional Gregorian antiphons with rare works by Gounod and Saint-Saëns, all marked by the same neo-classical approach. They include Gounod's Vocal mass, which he says he "worked on more or less in the style of the Sistine Chapel", written in 1842, and which was a hit at its premiere in Vienna, and Saint-Saëns's Mass opus 4, the first major work by the musician to bear an opus number, as the first he considered to be truly traditional, premiered (also with honours! ) at 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 (The Seven Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ), composed in 1855, rarely performed and yet described by its dedicatee as "so admirable in its breadth and simplicity", or Saint-Saëns's Veni Creator, the first work composed after his appointment as organist at the church of La Madeleine in 1858, which is both luminous and introspective.

The concert on 16 November 2023 is being organised as part of the Exhibition Louis Janmot The Poem of the Soul | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)

The concert on 26 August 2023 at the Early Music Festival in Utrecht (Netherlands) was the subject of a video recording broadcast live from the festival and available for replay on the Festival website >> Organisatie Oude Muziek :: Le Concert Spirituel / Hervé Niquet - Voices in the Notre-Dame