Between 1803 and 1968, the Grand Prix de Rome marked the zenith of composition studies at the Paris Conservatoire. In Maurice Ravel’s time the competition included an elimination round (a fugue and a choral piece) followed by a cantata in the form of an operatic scena. The entries were judged by a jury which generally favoured expertise and conformity more than originality and Ravel’s growing reputation as a member of the avant-garde was therefore hardly to his advantage, and may explain why he never won the coveted Premier Grand Prix, and the three-year stay at Rome’s Villa Medici that went with it.

The present set brings together all the vocal works that Ravel composed for the Prix de Rome – five shorter settings for choir and orchestra and three cantatas, each with three characters taking part in a plot which followed a more or less fixed sequence of introduction, recitative and aria, a duet, a trio and a brief conclusion. First published more than half a century after Ravel’s death, these test pieces for the Prix de Rome have never acquired the popularity of his other early works, such as Pavane pour une infante défunte, Jeux d’eau or the String Quartet. They are worth more than their reputation as academic exercises might suggest, however, and deserve to be better known, especially when performed by Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and Pascal Rophé and a team of vocal soloists including Véronique Gens and Michael Spyres.

REVIEWS:

This two-disc set brings together all of these rare vocal pieces by the composer: five shorter settings for choir and orchestra, and three cantatas, each with three characters taking part in the plot, which followed a more or less fixed sequence of introduction, recitative and aria, a duet, a trio and a brief conclusion. First published more than half a century after Ravel's death in 1937, these test pieces for the Prix de Rome have never acquired the popularity of his later and more mature works, but they are no mean pieces and are worth more than their reputation as academic exercises might suggest. These are compositions that are deftly crafted, full of attractive melodies, harmonically refined, and very often deeply sensitive. Indeed, they encapsulate all of the future Ravel hallmarks that were to make him one of the twentieth century's leading French composers.

Pascal Rophé draws some convincing performances and, in his hands, the music has an immediacy that keeps it consistently fresh and vivid. More than a collector's item which should attract the interest of all music lovers - Ravel aficionados in particular. Sonics and booklet notes are first-rate.

-- Classical Music Daily



"As a piece from an opera" was the intention of the Protestant theologian and poet Erdmann Neumeister (1671-1756) in his Geistliche Cantaten (sacred cantatas), which he first published in 1702. No wonder that several composers of sacred music jumped at the chance to use his texts to fulfill their duties. The varied structure of the poetry, some of which rhymes quite drastically, lends itself well to musical settings, in which recitatives, arias, choruses, and chorales alternate quite easily. As such, devout congregations could be presented with theological subjects in a non-ascetic manner. There were, of course, more austere cantatas with settings of psalms or other passages of the Holy Scriptures, either on their own or in connection with new poetic creations. This present production combines four examples from the quills of two contemporaries who successfully attempted various playing techniques, apparently in a relatively undogmatic phase.

Six dozen is half a gross. And Georg Philipp Telemann composed that many cantatas for the Frankfurt Church Year of 1714/15. cpo, Felix Koch, the Gutenberg Soloists and the Neumeyer Consort have taken up the cause to record this so-called "French church year" in its entirety – a mighty project that is all the more impressive given that the creative spirit behind these scores never worked en gros. Although he usually limited his instrumentation to two oboes, strings and basso continuo, adding a flute, bassoon, horns, trumpets and timpani for special Sundays or festive occasions, the composer's talent for orchestration was evidently boundless. He finds the appropriate sounds for his musical "sermon" on every theological topic. Every subject determined by the church calendar is reflected in his own individual way with a range of expression from the contemplative to the theatrical – and we are only one-third of the way through this fascinating journey.