JACQUES MERCIER CONDUCTS FRENCH MASTERPIECES - ORCHESTRE NATIONAL D'ILE DE FRANCE (10 CDS)

The ever-more comprehensive Sony Classical Masters series is pleased to announce ten new releases. Ranging from symphony cycles to solo piano music, these budget-priced box sets celebrate some of the leading musicians of recent times.

The Orchestre national d’Île-de-France amassed an impressive discography of late 19th-century French music under former music director Jacques Mercier, and this collection of ten CDs brings together many little-known or undervalued works. Several discs of sacred vocal music include compositions by the likes of Gounod and Saint-Saëns (including his Requiem) and vocal soloists include Nathalie Dessay, Françoise Pollet, Véronique Gens and François Le Roux. Other discs explore the music of Roussel, Schmitt (his Sallambô suites, given a “splendid performance” – Gramophone) and Bruneau, and Bizet’s rarity Djamileh is performed complete. Rounding out the collection is Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien.

Bizet: Agnus Dei
Bizet: Djamileh
Bizet: Te Ergo
Bruneau: Lazare
Bruneau: Requiem
Debussy: Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien
Fauré: En Priere
Franck, C: Encore un jour qui fuit (from Rebecca)
Franck, C: Panis Angelicus
Gounod: Ave Maria
Gounod: Beati qui lavant (from Mors et Vita)
Gounod: Gallia
Gounod: La pentecote (O Divine Redeemer)
Gounod: Repentir (O Divine Redeemer)
Massenet: La Vierge: L’extase de la Vierge
Massenet: O bien aimée (from La Navarraise)
Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane, Op. 43 - Suite No. 1
Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane, Op. 43 - Suite No. 2
Roussel: Deux Mélodies Op. 19
Roussel: Deux Mélodies Op. 20
Roussel: Deux Poèmes Chinois Op. 35
Roussel: Le Marchand de sable qui passe, Op. 13
Roussel: Odes Anacreontiques Op. 31
Roussel: Padmâvatî: Ballet Suites
Roussel: Petite Suite Op. 39
Roussel: Suite in F major, Op. 33
Saint-Saëns: Chanson de grand-père, Op. 53 No. 1
Saint-Saëns: Coeli enarrant, Op. 42 (Psaume XVIII)
Saint-Saëns: Le Déluge, Op. 45
Saint-Saëns: Le Pas d'armes du Roi Jean (Hugo)
Saint-Saëns: Requiem, Op. 54
Saint-Saëns: Reverie (Hugo)
Schmitt, F: Salammbô