The Secret Faure 3: Sacred Vocal Works

Volume III of The Secret Fauré features rarely heard sacred vocal works for choir and orchestra by Gabriel Fauré but also the composers famous Requiem which is recorded in a newly edited orchestra version. Sinfonieorchester Basel recorded these works with Benjamin Appl and Katja Stuber as soloists, Balthasar-Neumann-Chor under the direction of Ivor Bolton. The Secret Fauré III includes the world premiere recording of Fauré's Prelude to La Passion, N 109 after the new complete edition of Faurés works recently published by Bärenreiter Verlag. Fauré composed the Prelude to La Passion for the play of the writer Edmond Haraucourt. The Prelude was performed on its own on 21 April but remained unpublished until 1999. For this recording, Bärenreiter's new edition from 2019 was used.

The album starts with Super flumina Babylonis dating from July 1863. Conceived for soprano and tenor soloists, five-part mixed choir and orchestra, it is a setting of Psalm CXXVI. Another interesting work on the album is Cantique de Jean Racine, with which Fauré had won the first prize in composition for his Cantique de Jean Racine. Its initial version was for chorus accompanied by organ or piano. Fauré arranged the piece later for harmonium or organ and string quintet before orchestrating it in around 1905. It is this orchestral version that is heard on this album and that was performed for the first time on 28 January 1906.