Théodore Dubois - Musique sacrée et symphonique; Musique de chambre (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Théodore Dubois

CD1:

• Symphony No. 2 in B minor
• Piano Sonata in A minor

CD2:

• Messe pontificale
• Panis angelicus
• O Salutaris
• Ave verum
• Ave Maria
• O Salutaris
• Ave Maria

CD3:

• Symphonie francaise in F minor
• Piano Quartet in A minor

Chantal Santon

Jennifer Borghi

Marie Kalinine

Mathias Vidal

Alain Buet

Romain Descharmes

François Saint-Yves

Quatuor Giardini

Les Siècles / François-Xavier Roth

Flemish Radio Choir / Brussels Philharmonic / Hervé Niquet

Date: 2015

Label: Bru Zane

https://bru-zane.com/en/pubblicazione/musique-sacree-et-symphonique-%e2%88%92-musique-de-chambre/

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Review

The first bars of this set are so startling that you momentarily suspect that there must have been a mistake. What is Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain doing at the start of the Second Symphony by Théodore Dubois (1837-1924)? Alas I have no explanation, and nor does the booklet, but the demonic opening motif from Bare Mountain launches Dubois’s symphony of 1912 and permeates the chromatic colouring of the first movement. Thereafter, Dubois follows a well-trodden Franco-German path, with nods to Franck and Mendelssohn and also with some Wagnerian inflation, but the symphony’s impulse is strong and the music merits the fine performance it receives from the Brussels Philharmonic under Hervé Niquet.

This is a volume in the excellent series produced by the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice, which devotes itself to promoting French music that enjoyed more acclaim in its day than it does now. Dubois was one of Paris’s panjandrums, a Prix de Rome winner, director of the Conservatoire, organist at La Madeleine. The works here have been selected to show the breadth of his output, from a hyper-Romantic, Schumannesque A minor Piano Sonata (1908) to various religious pieces, including a full-scale Messe pontificale which seems to take Viennese Masses, particularly Schubert’s, as a model. There is also an F minor Symphonie française, stirringly played by Les Siècles under François-Xavier Roth, and an A minor Piano Quartet over which shades of Franck and Schumann again loom. No innovator, perhaps, but Dubois is a pleasure to listen to.

-- Geoffrey Norris, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/09/theodore-dubois-musique-sacree-symphonique-musique-de-chamber-cd-review

https://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Dubois-Portraits-Musique-chambre/dp/8461723651

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Théodore Dubois (24 August 1837 – 11 June 1924) was a French Romantic composer, organist, and music teacher. After study at the Paris Conservatoire, Dubois won France's premier musical prize, the Prix de Rome in 1861. He became an organist and choirmaster at several well-known churches in Paris, and at the same time was a professor in the Conservatoire. In 1896 he succeeded Ambroise Thomas as the Conservatoire's director. As a composer, Dubois was seen as capable and tasteful, but not strikingly original or inspired. His books on music theory were influential, and remained in use for many years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Théodore_Dubois

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