This disc of early choral works by
Bizet includes the cantata Clovis et Clotilde, written in 1857 when he was 18, won the Prix de Rome, and he wrote the Te Deum while in Rome in 1858. Both works show remarkable assurance for a composer so young. A precocious talent, he had written his popular Symphony in C when he was 17. The cantata, like the vast majority of pre-modern Prix de Rome winners, was written to fulfill a rigid set of procedural expectations that rarely unleashed a composer's most creative efforts. (
Debussy's L'Enfant prodigue is perhaps the only winning piece to have anything close to a place in the repertoire.) Scored for soprano, tenor, baritone, and orchestra, Clovis et Clotilde concerns the fifth century Frankish king whose conversion assured the primacy of the Roman Church in the region. The music is reminiscent of French and Italian opera of the era, and offers evidence of
Bizet's gifts as a dramatic composer. In the equally operatic Te Deum, for soprano, tenor, chorus, and orchestra,
Bizet's debt to his teacher
Gounod is transparent, and particularly recalls the older composer's St. Cecilia Mass, with which
Bizet was intimately familiar. Of the soloists, tenor Philippe Do has a pleasant, open, and resonant voice, and he makes the strongest impression. Choeur Régional Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Orchestra National de Lille under the leadership of
Jean-Claude Casadesus deliver earnest performances. Naxos' sound is warm and balanced.