Requiem op.48

While Fauré's Requiem is a monument of French church music, Gounod's Messe de Clovis is far less well known. It was composed from 1891 onwards as a tribute to Clovis, who, like Jeanne d'Arc, had become an iconic figure following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The two works share a reflective and intimate character that conveys an impression of a return to the purity of Gregorian chant, but this does nothing to diminish the jubilant character of Fauré's Requiem: "This warm, luxuriant sound leads to an elevation of the spirit," says Hervé Niquet. The work is recorded here in the 1893 version, in which neither violins nor woodwinds are used; a later version with full orchestra was published in July 1900. O salutaris by Louis Aubert (1877-1968) for soprano, violin, harp, organ and choir and L'Adagio for violin and organ by André Caplet (1878-1925) complete this programme, which was created in collaboration with the Palazzetto Bru Zane and is performed with great passion by the Concert Spirituel.