Georges Bizet - Djamileh; Vasco de Gama; Cantates; Musique chorale; Mélodies; Musique pour piano

Information

Composer: Georges Bizet

CD1:

• Djamileh, WD 27

CD2:

• Vasco de Gama, WD 124
• Le Golfe de Baïa, WD 119
• La Chanson du rouet, WD 120
• Chœur d’étudiants, WD 111
• La Mort s’avance, WD 133
• Ouverture in A Minor, WD 32
• Venise
• Variations chromatiques, WD 54

CD3:

• Le Retour de Virginie, WD 117
• Nocturne in D Major, WD 55
• Guitare, WD 79
• La Coccinelle, WD 87
• Vieille Chanson, WD 71
• Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe, WD 72
• Chanson d’avril, WD 75
• Pastel, WD 107
• Rose d’amour, WD 80
• La Nuit, WD 100
• Aimons, rêvons !, WD 102
• Si vous aimez, WD 106

CD4:

• Clovis et Clotilde, WD 121
• Chasse fantastique, WD 51
• La Rose et l’Abeille, WD 70
• Sonnet, WD 78
• Ma vie a son secret, WD 84
• Le Matin
• Voyage, WD 98
• Six Chœurs de Gounod

Various Artists

Date: 2025

Label: Bru Zane

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No, Georges Bizet was not only the composer of Carmen, the French opera most frequently performed around the world. In a career spanning less than twenty years, he produced works in every genre: orchestral music, piano pieces, cantatas, operas, songs and more besides.

He showed an early mastery of orchestration, and was soon able to give free rein to his taste for orientalism and folklore. This portrait offers a chance to discover works that were never performed during his lifetime, indeed some which had to wait until 2024 for their premiere. Of particular note is the ‘ode-symphony’ Vasco de Gama, which illustrates the Romantic taste for vast historical epics, and Le Retour de Virginie, a cantata for the Prix de Rome presented by the composer to his teacher in 1855.

Piano music and mélodies remind us that Bizet was also a sought-after salon composer, whose talent posterity has consecrated in songs like La Coccinelle and Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe.