This is an archival recording published by Hänssler. Recorded at the Herkulessaal in Munich in 1996, it boasts Gounod's Messe solennelle de sainte Cécile and Bizet's Te Deum. With forty masses under his belt as well as many oratorios, cantatas and motets, Charles Gounod is one of the most important composers of religious music in France. This side of the man who composed Faust is almost completely unknown to the general public. Although ordained, Gounod would abandon his religious calling after the political events of the revolutions of 1848, all the while keeping a deeply-rooted, private faith. Performed in the church of Saint Eustache, in Paris in 1855 with soloists from the opera, the Messe de sainte Cécile (patron saint of musicians) made a deep and lasting impression. Not without a certain external pomp, it would become one of the writer's most famous religious works.
Brought to life in 1983 by Jesús López Cobos in a very fine recording made with the Orchestre de la Suisse romande, Bizet's Te Deum dates from the young composer's stay at the Villa Médicis. Bizet, who described the work as being "more pagan than Christian", had made an attempt at picking up the thread of the Te Deum, which had been a musical fixture in France since the day of Louis XIV, who used it as a propaganda tool following each victory or important moment in the life of the Kingdom. Written to celebrate winners of the Prix de Rome scholarship, the work lay forgotten until its rediscovery in the 1970s. Bizet would re-use several passages from it, most notably in his opera The Pearl Fishers. The work is presented as a great motet for soloists, mixed choir and great symphonic orchestra with harp and tuba. © François Hudry/Qobuz