Each volume in the 'Portraits' series is devoted to a composer who has now largely been forgotten; it presents a varied selection of his works. Theodore Dubois is the perfect example of the 'official' composer during the time of French Romanticism: he successively was a Prix de Rome recipient (1861), organist at the Madeleine (1877), an academician (1894), and director of the Conservatoire (1896) where he had been teaching since 1871. However, so much injustice as well as honor was heaped upon his music - accused of academic rigidity - that it is important to rehear it to be in a better position to judge it's real interest value. A representative selection of works, typically previously unrecorded, is provided on this multi-faceted book-CD: A biography, extracts from Dubois' recollections, as well as articles discussing the composer's style and personality.