Gustave Charpentier and the Prix de Rome

Brussels Philharmonic and Hervé Niquet introduce the third volume of the Prix de Rome-series!

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The Brussels Philharmonic, the Flemish Radio Choir, the Palazzetto Bru Zane and Hervé Niquet introduce the third recording of the internationally acclaimed Prix de Rome . After Claude Debussy (2009) and Camille Saint-Saëns (2010) this year Gustave Charpentier is the featured composer.

The Prix de Rome was a highly popular competition in the nineteenth century, administered by the French government for young French composers at the beginning of their career. Some of the candidates are now world famous (Debussy, Saint-Saëns), while others never quite achieved the same breakthrough.

This CD series seeks to reacquaint us with the music that was originally written for the Prix de Rome but that has been forgotten or lost over the years: from unknown works by well-known figures to great works by unknown composers... The third volume in the series shines the spotlight on Gustave Charpentier.

 

 Alexandre Dratwicki, scientific director of Palazzetto Bru Zane

 

“The Symphonie romantique by Joncière, for example, has not been performed since 1880. And Charpentier's Didon was performed only once, and in lamentable artistic circumstances. We are delighted that these works have been rediscovered. And that the Brussels Philharmonic has joined us in this adventure is a great honour.“

 

CD No. 3: GUSTAVE CHARPENTIER – Music for the Prix de Rome (GES 922211-F)

Brussels Philharmonic | Hervé Niquet, conductor | Flemish Radio Choir | Royal Band of of the Belgian Guides

Programme

CD I (66:18)

01-05 Impressions d'Italie: Symphonie pittoresque

06-12 Didon (This cantata has never before been performed with a symphony orchestra, and has only this year been given its première performance by the Brussels Philharmonic!)

CD II (58:39)

01-04 La Vie du poète: Symphony-drama in three acts and four tableaux

05 La Fête des myrtes

This CD, like the first two, comes in a deluxe book form edition that includes the standard double compact disc as well as a collection of French essays on the Prix de Rome and Gustave Charpentier.

For more information, please visit the website of Glossa publishers. You can listen to excerpts from the recording, and the CD can be ordered online. Please check our travel blog for photos of the concert that took place in Venice in May 2011.

Please note that the next in the series, with works by Théodore Dubois (winner of the Prix de Rome in 1868), will be recorded in April 2012, the Palazzetto Bru Zane has once again invited the Brussels Philharmonic to perform this programme in Venice at a unique concert in the Scuola Grande de San Rocco on 5 May 2012.[Read more!]

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