MASTERWORKS LATE 19TH C FRANCE

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.