background
As a nine-year-old boy, Gabriel Fauré began his studies at École Niedermeyer, a music school in Paris that specialized in church music. It was the great composer Camille Saint-Saëns, piano teacher at the school, who encouraged Fauré to take up composition as well. Thus, at the age of 19, Fauré wrote Cantique de Jean Racineas his entry for the annual composition competition at this school. He won the premier prix.
Fauré’s language, already presaging his later, more mature style, is rich and complex but never overloaded. The original version of the piece was written for four-part choir and organ, although it was later adapted for orchestra and for piano. The text of the work is a French translation of a medieval Latin hymn, Consors paterni luminis, by the 17th-century poet and dramatist Jean Racine.
Although Fauré would compose many other masterpieces later in his career, including his famous Requiem and numerous songs and chamber works, the Cantique de Jean Racine remains one of his most beloved and performed works. The work is often performed by both amateur and professional choirs and has become standard repertoire in churches and concert halls worldwide.
Accompanied by pianist Céline Latour-Monnier, Cappella Amsterdam led by principal conductor Daniel Reuss sang the work in a television episode of Podium Witteman (now Podium Klassiek). Cantique de Jean Racine was performed in Dreams and Passion, a concert series by Cappella Amsterdam and Daniel Reuss in spring 2020.
lyrics
Verbe égal au Très-Haut, notre unique espérance,Jour éternel de la terre et des cieux,De la paisible nuit nous rompons le silence:Divin sauveur, jette sur nous les yeux.
Répands sur nous le feu de ta grâce puissante;Que tout l’enfer fuie au son de ta voix;Dissipe le sommeil d’une âme languissanteQui la conduit à l’oubli de tes lois!
Ô Christ! sois favorable à ce peuple fidèle,Pour te bénir maintenant rassemblé;Reçois les chants qu’il offre à ta gloire immortelle,Et de tes dons qu’il retourne comblé.
performed by
Cappella Amsterdam
Céline Latour-Monnier piano
Daniel Reuss conductor
