Messe de Requiem, Op. 48/N 97b

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Ivor Bolton and the Basel Symphony Orchestra continue their exploration into Fauré’s music with the third instalment in their series, devoted to religious music this time. Although he was the organist for the Madeleine Church in Paris, Fauré was not religious and only wrote a handful of religious pieces. While the Requiem is featured as the main attraction in this album and is still very well-known, by contrast, the Messe des pêcheurs de Villerville (Mass of the fisherman of Villerville) is a more simplistic treasure to be discovered.

This Messe was the product of his friendship with André Messager and was composed for four-handed piano in the small fishing village on the coast of Normandy between Trouville and Honfleur, where the two composers had gone on holiday. After the success of the first performance of the original version for women’s choir, harmonium and violin, Messager arranged the first four parts of this mass and Fauré the last. It was finally published in 1907 in a heavily amended form under the name Messe basse (“Low mass”, meaning a mass without music), but Ivor Bolton and his singers and musicians have performed the original version here.

Fauré received an honourable mention at the age of just eighteen when he submitted the magnificent Psalm, “Super flumina Babylonis” to a composition competition in the Niedermayer School in Paris. He won the first prize the following year with his composition dedicated to César Franck entitled Cantique de Jean Racine (“Chant by Jean Racine”), which is more widely known nowadays. Also featured on the album is the rare gem Passion, a prologue for Edmond Haraucourt’s play “Mystère En Deux Chants Et Six Parties” that was written in 1890 without Fauré’s music. © François Hudry/Qobuz